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THE 






UNITY OF THE CHUECH 



EXPI. AINED. 



THE 



ENGLISH SCHISM 



AND 



8EYEEAL HERESIES 



BX:-AL.:iyCII>TEID 



z 



BY JEREMIAH 'C ALL A G H A N , 

CATHOLIC PEIEST. 



HOLYOKE, MASS 



1859. 




y>^i 



« 



2-0 



,6 5- 




CONTENTS 



CHAPTEE. 

I. — Unity of the Church, ..... 

II. — The English Schism, the Origin of, 
in.— The Mass Abolished; the Book of Common Prayer 
Substituted, ...... 

ly. — Reunion of England with the Holy See, . 
V. — England Relapsed into the Schism, . . , 

VI. — The English Church Founded not alone upon Sacrilege, 
but also upon Perjury, .... 

VII. — The History of Protestancy in the United States, . 
VIII. — John H. Hopkins, Protestant Bishop, Fourteen Va- 
garies of, . 
IX. — Innovator I.'s Five Heresies, . . 
X. — Innovator II. 's Heresies, .... 

XL— Innovator Ill.'s Four Heresies, 
XII. — Calvinistie Minister's Absurdities, 
XIII. — Brownson's Ten Heresies, .... 



PAGE. 

8 
20 



39 
47 
52 

65 
93 

110 
156 
177 
191 
249 
268 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



^' O ye sons ofman^ how long will you he dull of heart 7 Why do 
you love vanity and seek after lying 7''^ — Psalm iv- 3. 

Protestants I you have separated yourselves, by your nefarious 
Schism, from the unity of Christendom; but w^hy do you persist in the 
separation, regardless of the admonition of God to live in the Catho- 
lic peace? It being v^ritten, Ps. xxi. 18, They have parted my 
garment amongst them, and upon my vesture they cast lots ; why 
should you become dividers of the Lord's tunic, woven with charity 
from above, which even the crucifiers of Christ did not divide ? Why 
would you divide the great linen sheet (Acts, x. 11) let down by the 
four corners, perhaps the four gospels, from heaven? You are deaf 
to the divine saying, Ps. ii. 7, *' The Lord hath said to me : Thou 
art my son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give 
thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance and the utmost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." Ps. xxi. 28. All the ends of the earth shall 
remember, and shall be converted to the Lord, and all the kindreds of 
the Gentiles shall adore in his sight : the kingdom is the Lord's ; and 
he shall have dominion over the nations: Ps. xlix. The God of gods, 
the Lord hath spoken : and he hath called the earth from the rising 
of the sun to the going down thereof, out of Sion the loveliness of his 
beauty. If you choose not to understand the Psalmist, hear the Lord 
himself speaking by his own mouth in the gospel, Luke, xxiv. 46, 
** It behoved that all things that were written of Christ in the law, and 
prophets, and psalms, be fulfilled ; and that penance and remission of 
sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jeru- 
salem." 



6 THE author's preface. 

You see that heavenly prophesy fulfilled to the very letter in these 
days : the Holy Catholic Church, although she is resisted and perse- 
cuted at all times by the demon and the world, spreads from the ris- 
ing of the sun to the going down thereof, preaching penance and re- 
mission of sins in the name of Christ to all nations ; she brings into 
the Fold from year to year the learaed philosopher, and mighty nations, 
without the temporal sword or any worldly appliances ; the talents, 
ardor, and zeal of her missionaries being fresh and vigorous as it had 
been in the Apostolical ages. Whilst, on the other hand, the Protest- 
ant sects could set up no claim to the divine promises ; they have all 
started into existence within the last three centuries ; and, like the 
Titans of old, as soon as they sprung out of the earth they begun to 
split and fight with one another, and soon after, they died and disap- 
peared ; not a particle of their first principle remains, but the shadow 
and the name. / What is Protestancy at the present time in England 
and these States, with all its wealth and profane oratory, but a broken, 
withered, lifeless branch ? 

Protestants ! why separate yourselves from the Fold of Christ ? Per- 
haps you are not satisfied with the immoral lives of some Catholics ; 
as if there be no beam to be plucked out of your own eyes ; as if all 
your women be pure as angels, and your men bright as amber. But 
supposing that you are the wheat in God's field, and these immoral 
Catholics the tares ; why not take the admonition of Christ Jesus, and 
tolerate the tares until harvest, when the angels of the Lord will 
come to separate the chaff" from the wheat, rather than make the sepa- 
ration yourselves before the appointed time — rather than remain out- 
side the Ark, to be lost in the universal deluge of infidelity ? 

Remember how dear you are to God ; what mighty price he has 
paid for your redemption. Ps. xxi. 17 : " They have dug my hands 
and feet : they have numbered all my bones, and they have looked 
and stared upon me." Protestants ! shall the blood of Christ be shed, 
in regard to you, in vain ? will you not regain the heavenly Ark which 
alone can save you from the flood that now rages and threatens to 
w^ash away poor mortals into the pit below ? Many are now-a-days so 



THE author's preface. 7 

involved in worldly cares and money pursuits, that they neglect solid 
reading and the affairs of eternity, which the generality of secular 
writers turn to their own account ; they take good care to treat only 
of light and frivolous subjects, calculated to meet the public taste, and 
thus they betray God, and the public whom they affect to enlighten. 
But I take a different course ; I strive to open the people's eyes upon 
the awful precipice to which they are running, wdth full confidence in 
their good sense and honesty, that they will not be angry with me for 
telling the truth. I could not bring myself to say unto them. Peace, 
;7eace, when there is no peace ; having before my eyes the divine prophe- 
sy, Isa. V. 20 : " Wo to you, that call evil good, and good evil ; that put 
darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet 
and sweet for bitter." It has been always my impression that flatter- 
ers and parasites are the most dangerous enemies poor mortals could 
have : they are puffed up by them with pride and conceit, and made to 
forget the Author of their being and endowments. 

JER. O'CALLAGHAN. 

HoLYOKE, Massachusetts, 
Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, 1859. 



THE 



UIITY OF THE CHURCH 

EXPLAINED. 



CHAPTER I. 

UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 

St. Cyprian, De Unit ate Ecdesice, saith : '' The Lord 
saith to Peter, Matt, xvi., Thou art Peter, and upon this rock 
I shall build my church. Upon one he builds the church ; 
and although he bestows, after his resurrection, equal 
power upon all the apostles, saying, John, xx.. As the 
Father sent me, I also send you : receive ye the Holy 
Ghost; however, that he might render the unity manifest, 
he settled by his own authority the origin of the unity 
in one. The other apostles were certainly furnished with 
an equal share of honor and power with Peter. But the 
origin comes from the unity, to show that the Church is 
one : which one Church the Holy Ghost, also, in the Can- 
ticle of Canticles, vi. 8, declares in the person of the Lord, 
saying : One is my dove, my perfect one is but one. She is the 
only one of her mother. This unity of the church whoso- 
ever holds not, does he imagine that he holds the faith ? 
Whoever opposes and resists the Church, does he think 
that he is in the Church ? The blessed apostle Paul 
teaches the same thing, and sets forth the mystery of the 



10 UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 

unity: he saith, Ephes. iv. 3, One body and one spirit, in one 
hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 
God. Which unity we bishops, especially, who rule in 
the church, should firmly hold and maintain : that we 
may show that the episcopate is one and indivisible. 
Let none of us delude with falsehood the brotherhood : 
let none with perfidious prevarication corrupt the true 
faith. The episcopate is one, of which a part is held in 
full by each. The church is also one, which widely 
spreads with increasing fecundity through the multitude. 
Whilst the rays of the sun are many, the light is one ; 
and the limbs of the tree are numerous, the strength 
founded upon the firm root is one. When several streams 
flow from the one fountain, it would appear from the 
great outpouring that there is a numerosity ; unity is, 
however, had at the source. If you sever a ray from the 
sun, the unity suffers no division of the light. From the 
tree cut off a branch ; being cut off, it cannot germinate. 
From the fountain detach a stream ; being separated,it dries 
up. Thus the church of the Lord, a luminous body, sends 
forth its rays through the universe ; the light, however, 
everywhere diffused, is one: the unity of the body re- 
mains unbroken : she dispatches her branches, loaded 
with rich fruits, in all directions : she discharges her 
overflowing streams into the whole world. However, the 
head is one, the fountain is one, and the mother is one, 
prolific in successive offspring. From her womb we are 
born ; from her suck we are fed ; from her spirit we are 
animated. The Spouse of Christ could not be guilty of 
adultery : she is chaste and unviolated ; she knows but 
one house ; she guards with modest chastity the holiness 
of one bed-chamber." 

There are, besides, the clearest proofs from both Tes- 
taments, the writings of the Holy Fathers, and from the 
definitions of the sacred Councils, that Christ our Lord 



UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 11 

hath founded the Holy Catholic Church, that the gates 
of hell shall never prevail against her ; that she is the 
pillar and ground of truth ; and that whosoever is out of 
her communion, even if he should distribute all his goods 
to feed the poor, and if he should deliver his body to be 
burned, it profiteth him nothing. But as the Church is 
not, but Schism and Heresy, my present subject, I shall 
say no more about her, but shall proceed to the discuss- 
ion of them. 

SCHISM. 

Poj^e Pelagius saith : '' Schism, which is a Greek 
w^ord, signifies a split. But in unity a split cannot be. 
Wherefore the persons communicate not with the unity 
who communicate with schismatics. They made for 
themselves parties, and separating themselves from that 
which is one, they have not the Spirit. To them all it 
has happened that because they are not one in the 
unity ; that, as they would be in a faction ; that, as they 
have not the Spirit, they cannot have the sacrifice of 
the body of Christ. But the question at present is not 
whether we ought to tolerate the wicked ones, but 
whether we ought to hold communion with schismatics. 
If they, though being full of self-conceit and abiding 
within their mother^s bosom, seek the truth, they should 
not be separated until the truth be made clear to them 
by reasoning. But when they sever themselves from the 
universal Church, every Catholic may safely desert that 
sect with, which he knows the universal Church, founded 
upon Apostolic Sees, communicates not. What schism 
particularly is, St. Augustin declares, saying : ' The man 
who rashly believes contrary to the authority of the 
Churches worthy of the epistolary correspondence of the 
Apostolical See, cannot free himself from the dreadful 
crime of schism.''^ Qmted in the Decretals, xxiv., Quest 1 
Cha:p. 34. ' c . , 



12 UNITYOF THE CHURCH 



HERESY. 



St. Jerome, Comment, on Titus, iii., saith : '' There is 
this difference between schism and heresy, that schism 
by reason of the episcopal dissension, and heresy by its 
false doctrine, equally separates from the Church." 

He saith. Comment, on Gal. v. : '' Heresy is called in 
the Greek from election, because each person chooses for 
himself that doctrine which he likes best. Wherefore, 
whosoever understands the Scriptures contrary to the 
sense of the Holy Ghost, by whom they were written, can, 
though he secedes not from the Church, be called a here- 
tic." 

St. Augwstin, de Utilitate Credendi, Cha;p. 1, saith : ** He 
is a heretic who for the sake of some temporal interest, 
especially of his own glory and dignity, either broaches 
or follows false and novel opinions ; but the man who 
gives ear to such people is misled by some semblance 
of truth and piety." 

He saith, E;pist. 162: ^' The apostle, on Tit. iii., writes : 
A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, 
avoid, knowing that he that is such an one is subverted and sin- 
neth, being condemned by his oicn judgment. But they who 
with no pertinacity defend their opinion, which they en- 
gendered not through self-presumption, but which they 
imbibed from their deluded and erroneous parents, but 
who with caution and solicitude seek the truth, and who 
are, when they find it, open to conviction, must not, by 
any means, be ranked with heretics." Here a serious 
difficulty arises, which must be removed before we ad- 
vance. St. Augustin in the first proposition saith : *'that 
the man who broaches or follows false and erroneous 
opinions is a heretic ; but in the second he saith : that 
the persons who with no pertinacity defend their opinion, 
however false and perverse, especially if they broach it 



UNITY OF THE CHUKCH. 13 

"not through presumption, but imbibed it from their teach- 
ers, and if they cautiously seek the truth, and be open to 
conviction, must not be called heretics." Here lies the 
difficulty : the holy Father would appear, to the light 
reader, to deny in the second what he teaches in the first 
proposition. But in order to see his consistency, the 
school distinction of material and formal heresies must be 
kept in view. An error in the faith revealed is called 
material, but an error in the faith revealed, and defined 
by the Church, is styled formal heresy. For example : 
the divinity of Christ Jesus had been the faith of Christ- 
endom ever since the apostolical age, being preserved in 
the Church by the constant and universal tradition ; but 
it had not been formally defined by the Church prior to 
the Council of Nice, in 325 ; nor would it, perhaps, be 
then defined had not Arius blasphemously impugned it. 
Firm faith in the Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection 
of the Son of God was equally essential unto salvation 
previous and subsequent to the Great Council, with this 
only difference, that the doubter in the mystery subsequent 
to the formal definition by the Council would, in addition to 
the want of faith, without which it is imjpossihle to jpltase God^ 
incur the terrific crime of disobedience to the Church. He 
that hears not the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and pub- 
lican. It is manifest from the sacred text upon which St. Au- 
gustin comments — A man that is an heretic after the first and 
second admonition^ avoid, knowing that he who is such an one^ is 
subverted, sinneth, and is self-condemned — that the unbeliever, 
no matter whether he lost the faith through the pravity 
of his own heart, or the false teaching of his parents or 
pastors, is perverted and in the state of perdition, but his 
society need not be shunned by the faithful, until he is, 
after the regular admonitions, formally excommunicated. 
Christ Jesus saith, John, x. 16, And other sheep 
I have that are not of this fold ; them also I must 

2 



14 UNITY OF THE CHURCH, 

bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be 
one fold and one Shepherd. Kay, the whole course of 
the Redeemer's mission from heaven tends to bring the 
lost sheep, to call the whole human race into one faith 
and one fold, under one Shepherd. Why offer himself a 
sacrifice for them on the cross, or why send his beloved 
apostles to carry, at the risk of their lives, the light of the 
gospel to all nations, if these nations could be justified 
by the law of nature ? 

St. AugustiTij De Fide ad Petrum, Chap, xxx., saith : 
*^ Hold thou most firmly and by no means doubt, that, ex- 
cepting those persons who are baptized in their blood for 
the name of Christ, no man shall receive eternal life who 
is not here converted by faith and penance from his sins 
and by the Sacrament of faith and penance, that is, by 
baptism, liberated ; and for adults it is certainly neces- 
sary, both to do penance for their evil deeds, and to hold 
the Catholic faith according to the rule of truth, and to 
receive the Sacrament of baptism ; but for infants, who 
cannot of themselves believe nor perform penance for the 
sin which they originally contract, the Sacrament of faith 
which is holy baptism suffices unto salvation, as long as 
they are under the years of reason." 

Chap, xxxvii. ^' Hold thou most firmly and yon shall 
by no means doubt, that every person baptised outside 
the Catholic Church cannot become a partaker of eternal 
life, if he is not before the end of his life received into and 
incorporated with the Catholic Church. Because, as the 
apostle, 1 Cor. xiii., saith : If I should have all faith, and 
should know all mysteries, and have not charity, 1 am 
nothing : for we read that in the days of the deluge none 
could be saved outside the ark." 

Chap, xxxix. ** Hold thou most firmly and thou shalt 
by no means doubt, that the heretic and schismatic 
baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 



UNITYOFTHECHURCH, 15 

of the Holy Ghost, if he be not taken into the Catholic 
Church, though he make abundant alms, and even if he 
pour out his blood for the name of Christ, cannot at all 
be saved. For neither baptism or alms, however abund 
ant, nor even death endured for the name of Christ, can 
avail unto salvation for any man who holds not the unity 
of the Catholic Church, as long* as the heretical or schis- 
matical pravity which leads unto death abides in him/' 

The foregoing sentence against the poor Protestants, 
who have only followed the doctrine and principles of 
their parents and teachers, may appear to some persons 
cruel and uncharitable ; but let them reme;aQber that it 
was not originally dictated nor written by me ; that it is 
the embodiment of the doctrine of the Testaments, the 
constant and universal faith of the Church of Christ. 
Remember, also, that no custom however old and general, 
nor patrons however numerous and respectable, justifies 
a deviation from the divine law. For amen I say unto 
you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall 
not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled : Matt. v. 18. 
And again : What if some of them have not believed, 
shall their unbelief make the faith of God without efiect ? 
God forbid. Rom. iii. 3. And again : Thou in the begin- 
ning, Lord, didst found the earth, and the works of thy 
hands are the heavens : they shall perish, but thou shale 
continue : and they shall grow old as a garment. And as 
a vesture shalt thou change them : and they shall be 
changed ; but thou art the self-same, and thy years shall 
not fail : Heb. i. 10. Wherefore I do not fear the blame 
or censure of the people concerned, for having unfolded 
the law of God and called their attention toward the 
impending danger ; for having, in short, told them the 
truth. 

Now comes under our consideration the English 
schism, a disastrous event for the souls of Englishmen : 



16 UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 

it detached them from the law and Church of God, and 
gave to each person liberty to construe the Bible his 
own way, to think and to act as he will. My authorities 
for so saying are not private historians, but the very 
Acts of Parliament copied from the Statute Book which no 
man can doubt or gainsay. From them it will be made 
manifest that the Protestant religion originated not from 
any error or supposed defect in the old Catholic religion ; 
nay, that Henry YIII., who effected the schism, was 
strenuous during his life for the preservation among his 
people, of the Catholic faith of Christendom ; the same 
Statutes make it evident, also, that no saints or devotees, 
nor any person remarkable for piety and equity, but the 
infamous characters, libertines, adulterers, perjurers, and 
church-robbers, were agents and abettors in the drama. 

It is well known to every reader of history that Eng- 
land was brought into the Catholic Church from heathen- 
ism by Pope Gregory the Great, and by St Augustin and 
his companions, in the year 596, and that she continued 
in communion with the See or Church of Rome, and 
in the profession of the Roman Catholic religion, down 
to the time of Henry VIII. 1553. 

He was seventeen years married to the virtuous and 
irreproachable Queen Catherine of Arragon, and then 
took it into his head to discharge her and marry a younger 
dame called Anne Boleyn, who was said by some respect- 
able historians to have been even his own daughter. He 
solicited a dispensation from the Pope to divorce his 
lawful wife, which was refused, because it is written, 
Matt, xix., What God hath joined together^ let not man put 
asunder. Hereupon Henry became furious and resolved 
that his brutal lust should be gratified : he cut off all 
communion with the See of Rome — made himself supreme 
head of the English Church, in spiritual as in temporal 
matters ; becoming therefore, to all intents and purposes, 



UNITY OF THE CHURCH. l^ 

a schismatic, although he continued, until the hour of 
his death, as we will by-and-by see, to maintain within 
his realm the Catholic religion of Christendom. He had 
often burned at the same stake Catholics and heretics ; 
those for denying his spiritual supremacy, and these for 
the Catholic Seven Sacraments or any one dogma of the 
Catholic faith ; so that nobody knew during his reign 
what creed or religion he should, consistently with the 
will and caprice of the king, hold. In separating himself 
and his kingdom from the head of the Church, he laid 
the foundation of that irreligious chaos which broke out 
m his own days^ and which continues to increase with- 
out intermission amongst the Protestants from that day 
to this. 

He succeeded his father, Henry VII., in the year 1509, 
to a great and prosperous kingdom, a full treasury, a 
happy and contented people, whom he soon brought 'to 
misery and confusion. We shall, by-and-by, see that 
civil liberty— that is, the rightful enjoyment of men's 
lives and property— fell by the same tyrannical hands that 
suppressed the Pope's supremacy. But whence our civil 
liberty? Whence came those laws which Lord Coke 
calls the -birth-rights'' of Englishmen, and which each 
of the States of America declare in their Constitutions 
to be the birth-right of the people thereof? Whence 
came the laws of England— are they of Protestant ori- 
gin ? Did Protestants establish the three courts and the 
twelve judges, the trial by jury, to which England owes 
a large portion of her fame and greatness ? It was not 
a gift from Scotchmen, nor Dutchmen, nor Hessians, nor 
from Lutherans, Calvinists, nor Huguenots, but was the 
work of our own brave and wise English Catholic ances. 
tors ; and Chief-Justice Abbott is the heir, in an unbro^ 
ken line of succession, to that Bench which was erected 
by Alfred, who was at the very same time most zealously 



18 UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 

engaged in the founding of churches and monasteries. 

If Protestants, however, still insist that the Pope's 
supremacy and its companions produced ignorance, su- 
perstition, and slavery, let them act the part of sincere, 
honest, and consistent men ; let them knock down or blow 
up the cathedrals, colleges, and the old churches ; let 
them sweep away the three courts, the twelve judges, 
the circuits, and the jury-boxes ; let them demolish all 
that we inherit from those whose religion they so unre- 
lentingly persecute, and whose memory they affect so 
heartily to despise ; let them demolish all this, and they 
shall have left, all their own, the capacious jails and peni- 
tentiaries ; the stock-exchange ; the hot, and ancle and 
knee-swelling and lung-swelling cotton factories ; the 
whiskered standing army and its splendid barracks ; the 
parson-captains, parson-lieutenants, parson-ensigns, and 
parson-justices ; the poor-rates and pauper-houses, and, 
by no means forgetting that blessing which is peculiarly, 
and doubly, and gloriously Protestant, the NATIONAL 
DEBT. Ah ! people of England, how you have been de- 
ceived I 

The work of blood was now begun, and it proceeded 
with steady pace. All who refused to take the oath of 
supremacy — that is to say, all who refused to become 
apostates — were considered and treated as traitors, and 
made to suffer death, accompanied with every possible 
cruelty and indignity. As a specimen case, let us take 
the treatment of John Houghton, Prior of the Charter- 
house in London, which was then a convent of Carthusian 
monks. This Prior, for having refused to take the oath, 
which, observe, he could not take without committing 
perjury, was dragged to Tyburn. He w^as scarcely sus- 
pended when the rope was cut and he fell alive on the 
ground : his clothes were then stripped off ; his bowels 
were ripped up ; his heart and entrails were torn from 



UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 19 

his body and flung into a fire ; his head was cut from 
his body ; the body was divided into four quarters and 
par-boiled ; the quarters were then subdivided and hung 
up in different parts of the city, and one arm was nailed 
to the wall, over the entrance into his monastery ! By 
such means was the Protestant religion introduced into 
England. How different from the means by which the 
Catholic religion had been introduced by Pope Gregory 
and St. Augustin !^^ Cohhetfs Hist. ^ par. 97, and onwards. 
Now I solicit the reader^s serious attention to the fol- 
lowing Acts of Parliament, which I have not borrowed, 
at second-hand from any private author, but copied from 
the Engli^ih Statute-Book. 



20 ENGLISH SCHISM 



CHAPTER II. 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 



*' The thing called the Reformation was engendered in heastly 
lustj brought forth in hypocrisy and perfidy, and cherished 
and fed by plunder, devastation, and by rivers of English 
and Irish blood.^^ — CobbetVs Hist. Reform, par, 449. 

The Act of Parliament by which the English Schism 

was fomented. 

''25 Henry VHL, Chap. \^,A%. 1533,* 'Whereas the 
King's humble and obedient subjects the Clergy of this 
realm of England, have not only acknowledged according 
to the truth that the Convocations of the same Clergy is, 
always hath been, and ought to be assembled only by the 
King's Writ, but also submitting themselves to the King's 
Majesty, have promised Verio sacerdotis, that they will 
never from thenceforth presume to attempt, allege, claim 
or put in use or enact, promulgate or execute any new 
Canons, Constitutions or Ordinance Provincial, or other, 
or by whatsoever name they shall be called, in the con- 
vocation, unless the King's most Royal Assent and Li- 
cense may to them be had, to make, promulgate and ex- 
ecute the same ; and that his Majesty do give the most 
Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf. And whereas 
divers Constitutions, Ordinances and Canons Provincial 
or Synodical, which heretofore have been enacted, and be 
thought not only to be much prejudicial to the King's 
Prerogative Royal, and repugnant to the laws and Sta- 
tutes of this Realm, but also overmuch onerous to his 

* Which reads, The 2^th year of the reign of Henry VIIL 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 21 

Highness and his Subjects ; the said Clergy hath most 
humbly besought the King's Highness, that the said 
Constitutions and Canons may be committed to the ex- 
amination and judgment of his Highness and of two and 
thirty persons of the King's Subjects, whereof sixteen to 
be of the upper and nether House of the Parliament of 
the Temporality, and the sixteen to be of the Clergy of 
this Realm ; and all the said two and thirty persons to 
be chosen and appointed by the King's Majesty ; and 
that such of the said Constitutions and Canons as shall 
be thought and determined by the said two and thirty 
persons, or the more part of them, worthy to be abrogated 
and annulled, shall be abolete, and made of no value ac- 
cordingly ; and such other of the same Constitutions and 
Canons, as by the said two and thirty, or the more part 
of them,^hall be approved to stand with the Laws of God, 
and consonant to the Laws of this Realm, shall stand in 
their full strength and power, the King's most Royal 
Assent first had and obtained to the same ; Be it there- 
fore enacted by Authority of this house of Parliament 
according to the said submission and Petition of the said 
Clergy, that they ne any of them from henceforth shall 
presume to attempt, allege, claim or put in use any Con- 
stitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodical, or any 
other Canons ; nor shall enact, promulgate or execute 
any such Canons, Constitutions, or Ordinances Provin- 
cial by whatsoever name or names they may be called, 
in their Convocations in time coming (which always shall 
be assembled by authority of the King's Writ) unless the 
same Clergy may have the King's most Royal Assent 
and License to make, promulgate and execute such Can- 
ons, Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodical 
upon pain of every one of said Clergy doing contrary 
to this Act and being thereof convict, to suffer Imprison- 
ment, and make Fine at the King's Will. 

2* 



22 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

" And forasmuch as such Canons, Constitutions, and 
Ordinances as heretofore have been made by the Clergy 
of this Realm, cannot now at the Session of this present 
Parliament, by reason of shortness of time, be viewed, 
examined and determined by the King's Highness, and 
thirty-two persons to be chosen and appointed according 
to the Petition of the said Clergy in Form above re- 
hearsed ; Be it therefore enacted by the authority afore- 
said, that the King's Highness shall have power and 
authority to nominate and assign at his pleasure, the said 
wo and thirty persons of his Subjects, whereof sixteen 
o be of said Clergy, and sixteen of the Temporalty of 
the Upper and Nether House of the Parliament ; and if 
any of the said two and thirty persons so chosen shall 
happen to die before their full determination, then his 
Highness to nominate other from time to tii^e of the 
said two Houses of Parliament to supply the number 
of the said two and thirty, and that the same two and 
thirty, by his Highness so to be named, shall have 
power and authority to view, search and examine the 
said Canons, Constitutions, and Ordinances Provincial 
or Synodical heretofore made, and such of them as the 
King's Highness, and the said two and thirty, or the more 
part of them, shall deem and adjudge worthy to be con- 
tinued, kept and obeyed, shall be from thenceforth kept, 
obeyed and executed within this Realm, so that the 
King's most Royal Assent under his Great Seal be first 
had to the same ; and the residue of the said Canons, 
Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial, which the 
King's Highness and the said two and thirty persons or 
the more part of them, shall not approve or deem and 
judge worthy to be abolete, abrogate and made frustrate, 
shall from thenceforth be void and of none effect, and 
never be put in execution within this Realm. Provided 
always. That no Canons, Constitutions or Ordinances 



ENGLISH SCHISM, 23 

shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by 
the authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which 
shall be contrarient or repugnant to the King's Preroga- 
tive Royal, or the Customs, Laws, or Statutes of this 
Realm ; anything contained in this act to the contrary 
hereof notwithstanding. 

'* And be it further enacted by authority aforesaid, 
That from the Feast of Easter which shall be in the year 
of our Lord God 1534, no manner of appeals, shall be 
had, provoked or made out of this Realm or out of any 
of the King's Dominions, to the Bishop of Rome nor to 
the See of Rome, in any causes or matters happening to 
be in Convention, and having their commencement and 
beginning in any of the Courts within this Realm, or 
within any of the King's Dominions, what nature, condi- 
tion or quality soever they be of ; but that all manner of 
Appeals, what nature or condition soever they be of, or 
what Cause or Matter soever they concern, shall be made 
or had by the parties grieved, or having cause of Appeal, 
after such manner, form and condition as is limited for 
Appeals to be had and prosecuted within this Realm in 
causes of Matrimony, Tythes, Oblations and Obventions, 
by a Statute thereof made and established sithen the be- 
ginning of this present Parliament, and according to the 
form and effect of the said Estatute ; any Usage, Custom, 
Prescription or anything or things to the contrary hereof 
notwithstanding. 

" And for lack of justice at, or in any of the Courts 
of the Archbishops of this Realm or in any the King's 
Dominions, it shall be lawful to the Parties grieved to 
Appeal to the King's Majesty in the King's Court of 
Chancery ; and that upon every such Appeal, a Commis- 
sion shall be directed under the Great Seal to such per- 
sons as shall be named by the King's Highness, his Heirs 
or Successors, like as in case of Appeal from the Admi- 



24 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

raPs Court, to hear and definitely determine such Ap- 
peals, and the causes concerning the same. Which Com- 
missioners, so by the King's Highness, his Heirs or suc- 
cessors to be named or appointed, shall have full power 
and authority to hear and definitely determine every such 
appeal, with the causes and all their circumstances con- 
cerning the same ; and that such judgment and sentence 
as the said Commissioners shall make and decree, in and 
upon any such Appeal, shall be good and effectual, and 
also definitive ; and no further Appeals to be had or made 
from the said Commissioners for the same. 

'^ And if any person or persons at any time after the 
said Feast of Easter, provoke or sue any manner of Ap- 
peals what nature or condition soever they be of, to the 
said Bishop of Rome, or to the See of Rome, or do procure or 
execute any manner of Process from the See of Rome, or 
by authority thereof, to the derogation, or let of the due 
execution of this Act, or contrary to the same, that then 
every such person or persons so doing, their aiders, coun- 
selors and abettors shall incur and run into the dangers, 
pains and penalties contained and limited in the Act of 
Provision and Praemunire made 16th year of Richard II. 
against such as sue to the Court of Rome against the 
King's Crown and Prerogative Royal." 

Remark. — England was brought into the fold of Christ 
by St. Augustin and his companions about the year five 
hundred and ninety-six, and might continue therein till 
the end of time, had not Henry VIII. taken it into his 
head to divorce his lawful wife and cohabit with another, 
for which he was first admonished and then excommuni- 
cated, March 23, 1533, by Pope Clement VII. Every 
good shepherd would do the same in similar circum- 
stance : he reproves, entreats and reprimands in all pa- 
tience and doctrine, but if the sinner continue obstinate, 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 25 

he separates him, lest the contagion spread. Whilst the 
people are corrected, shall the Rulers have liberty to set 
the law of God and public decency at defiance ? Henry's 
brutal lust went ahead, his anger knew no bounds. By 
the Act just recited he severed himself and the kingdom 
from the Church, and made himself head of the Church 
of England ; decreeing the penalties of praemunire against 
all persons who would correspond with the Pope or im- 
pugn his own headship. The Redeemer shed his blood 
and sent his apostles to call all nations into one fold ; but 
Harry and his servile Parliament scatter them again. 
The English and Scotch, with a few honorable exceptions, 
sold the religion and conformed to Henry's Church, whilst 
the Irish in general remained faithful to the religion of 
Christ Jesus. All persons desirous for a true and faith- 
ful picture of this public and disastrous event, would do 
well to procure Cobbett's History of the Reformation, 
together with his Legacies, the one to the Parsons, and the 
other to the Laborers. He who was a Protestant and mem- 
ber of Parliament, drew his narrative from public and well 
known facts, and authentic document?, and made his pub- 
lications in London before the eyes of the Government. 

Whereas several persons are puzzled about the im- 
port of the Act Praemunire levelled against the opponents 
of his will, I insert its description from Sir Edw. CoJce^ 
1 Instit. 129 : ^^ Prom conviction the defendant shall be 
out of the king's protection ; and his lands, tenements, 
goods and chattels shall be confiscated to the king, 
and his body shall remain in prison during the king's 
pleasure. The man thus attainted may be slain by an- 
other with impunity." Thus was England detached, not 
willingly but by pains and penalties, not by any apostle 
or saint, but by a brutal tyrant, from the fold of Christ. 

*^ 25 Henry VIII. Chap, 21, decrees additional penal- 



2G ENGLISH SCHISM. 

ties against all manner of correspondence with Rome ; 
and in the I9th Section speaks thus : ' Provided always, 
that this Act, nor any thing or things therein con- 
tained, shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that 
your Grace, your Nobles, and Subjects intend by the 
same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's 
Church in any things concerning the very Articles of 
the Catholic faith of Christendom, or in any things de- 
clared by holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary 
for you and their Salvation, but only to make an Ordi- 
nance by Policies necessary and convenient to repress 
vice and for good conservation of this Realm in peace, 
unity, and tranquility, from ravin and spoil, insuing much 
the ancient customs of this Realm in that behalf ; and 
minding to seek for any relief, succors or remedies for 
any worldly things and human Laws, in the cause of ne- 
cessity, but within this Realm at the hands of your High- 
ness, your Heirs and Successors, Kings of this Realm 
which have, and ought to have, an Imperial power and 
authority in the same, and not be obliged in any worldly 
causes to any other^Superior/ '' 

From the above Act, to say nothing of his book in de- 
fence of the seven Sacraments against Luther, or of his 
famous Law of Six Articles (to be seen hereafter) it 
is evident that Harry was for preserving the Catholic 
faith of Christendom ; and that he pretended only to con- 
serve the Realm in peace, unity, and tranquility from 
spoil and ravin. As the wolf preserves the sheep and 
lambs, so did Harry preserve the convents, churches and 
monasteries, and the poor men's hospitals from spoil and 
ravin. However, had he foreseen that the total destruc- 
tion of tlie Catholic religion would result from his schism, 
it is probable that he would not have gone as far as he 
did, and that there would have been no Reformation. 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 27 

The two Acts that were passed the jsame year — the 
one entitled An Act for the non-payment of First Fruits to the 
Bishop of Rome ; and the other, The Act concerning Peter^s 
Pence and Dispensations — were, undoubtedly, baits for catch- 
ing the people, but the dupes soon learned that Harry ex- 
celled in spoil and ravin and church plundering. 

The King's Grace to be Supreme Head of the Church. 

'' 26 Henry VIII. Chap. 1, An. 1534. '' Albeit the King's 
Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the 
Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is re- 
cognised by the Clergy of this Realm in their Convoca- 
tions, yet nevertheless, for corroboration and confirma- 
tion thereof, and for increase of Virtue in Christ's Reli- 
gion within the Realm of England, and to repress and 
extirp all errors, heresies and other enormities and 
abuses heretofore used in the same : Be it enacted by 
the authority of this present Parliament, that the King 
our Sovereign Lord, his Heirs and successors, Kings of 
this Realm, shall be taken, accepted and reputed the 
only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England, 
called Anglicana Fcclesia, and shall have and enjoy, an- 
nexed and united to the Imperial Crown of this Realm, 
as well the Title and style thereof, as all Honors, Dig- 
nities, Preeminences, Jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, 
immunities, profits, and commodities to the said Dignity 
of Supreme Head of the same Church belonging and 
appertaining ; and that our said Sovereign Lord, his 
Heirs, and Successors, Kings of this Realm, shall have 
full power and authority from time to time to visit, re- 
press, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend 
all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts and 
enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of 
spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully 
be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, re- 



28 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

strained or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty 
God, the increase of virtue in Christ^s Religion, and for 
the conservation of peace, unity and tranquility of this 
Realm ; any usage, custom, foreign Laws, foreign author- 
ity, prescription, or any other thing or things to the 
contrary hereof notwithstanding.' " 

Remark. — The Headship now bestowed upon that bru- 
tal king is traced to no sacred authority, but to the recog- 
nition of the clergy in their convocation, but ** they con- 
sented with great reluctance," saith Lord Herbert. Life 
of Henry YIII., page 273. Could they refuse whilst the 
tyrant held the Praemunire over their heads ? 

Chajp. 3. The Bill for giving the First Fruit Sy with the yearly 
Pensions^ to the King. 

" Forasmuch as it is and of every duty ought to be, 
the natural inclination of all good people, like most faith- 
ful, loving, and obedient subjects sincerely and willingly 
to desire to provide, not only for the Public Weal of their 
native country, but also for the supportation, maintenance 
and defence of the Royal Estate of their most dread, be- 
nign, and gracious Sovereign Lord, upon whom, and in 
whom dependeth all their joy and wealth, in whom 
also is united and knit so princely a heart and cour- 
age mixed with mercy, wisdom and justice, and also 
natural affection joined to the same, as by the great, 
inestimable and benevolent arguments thereof, being most 
bountifully, largely, and many times, shewed, ministered 
and approved towards his loving and obedient subjects, 
hath well appeared, which requireth a like correspondence 
of gratitude to be considered, according to their most 
bounden duties; Wherefore his said humble and obedient 
Subjects, as well the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, as 
the Commons in his present Parliament assembled, call- 
ing to their remembrance not only the manifold and innu- 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 29 

merable benefits daily administered by his Highness to 
them all, and to the residue of all other his subjects of 

this Realm do therefore desire and most humbly 

pray, that for the more surety of continuance and aug- 
mentation of his Highness Royal Estate, being not only 
now recognized the only Supreme Head in Earth, next^ 
and immediately under God, of the Church of England, 
but also their most assured and undoubted natural Sove- 
reign liege Lord and King ... Be it therefore ordained and 
enacted 

^' 'That the King's Highness, his Heirs and successors, 
Kings of this Realm, shall have and enjoy from time to 
time to endure for ever, of every such person or persons 
which at any time after the first of January next coming 
shall be nominated, elected, presented, prefected, or collat- 
ed, to have any Archbishoprick, Bishoprick, Abbacy, Mon- 
astery, College, Hospital, Prebend, Benefice, Office, or Pro- 
motion spiritual within this Realm, of what name, nature, 
or quality soever they be, or to whose foundation, patron- 
age or gifts soever they belong, the First Fruits, Revenues, 
and profits for one year of every such Archbishoprick, 
Bishoprick, &c. And that every person or persons nomi- 
nated or elected to the said Archbishoprick, Bishopricks, 
&c. before any actual or real possession or meddling with 
the profits of any such Archbishoprick, Bishoprick, &c. 
shall satisfy, content and pay or compound or agree to 
pay to the King's use, at reasonable days, upon good 
Sureties, the First Fruits and Profits for one year.' 

'^ The M Section of the Act appoints Commissioners to 
search for the value of Benefices throughout the Realm, 
and to compound for the First Fruits ; the 4th points out 
the mode of giving Certificates for the payment of the 
First Fruits; the 5th decrees the forfeiture of double the 
value of the First Fruits as a penalty against any man 
who would enter upon his Spiritual benefice before com- 



30 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

position; the 6th provides that all First Fruits payable to 
other persons shall cease, and be paid to the King; the 
8th exempts removeable priors from the payment of the 
First Fruits; the 9th gives, besides the First Fruits, to 
the King, the tenth or tythe of all the benefices Spiritual 
and Temporal within the Realm; and provides that the 
said tenth or annual rent be 3^early paid to the King, his 
Heirs, and Successors, for ever. " 

From such tyrannical Acts coming in rapid success- 
ion, we easily conceive what was the terror, horror, and 
indignation of all persons not partakers in the spoil; and 
that there was all manner of abuse justly heaped upon 
the tyrant — hence an Act was passed the same year 
which is entitled — 

'^ Chap. 13. An Act whereby Offences be made High Treason, 
and taking aioay all sanctuaries for all manner of High 
Treasons. 

^' After the preamble the Act says : 'Be it therefore 
enacted . . . That if any person or persons do maliciously 
wish, will, or desire, by words or writing, or by craft, 
imagine, invent, practice, or attempt any bodily harm to 
be done, or committed to the King's most Royal Person, 
the Queen, or their Heirs apparent, or to deprive them, 
or any of them of their dignity, title or name of their 
Estates, or slanderously and maliciously publish, or pro- 
nounce by express writing or words, that the King our 
Sovereign Lord should be heretick^ schismatick, tyrant, infidel, 
or usurper of the Crown, &c.,' that then every such per- 
son or persons so offending in any of the premises ; their 
aiders, counsellors, consenters, and abettors being thereof 
lawfully convict according to the laws and customs of 
this Realm, shall be adjudged traitors, and shall suffer the 
penalty of death and other penalties as is limited in cases 
of High Treason/ 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 31 

Remark that the internal^acts of the mind — " to wish, 
will, desire or imagine " that they would or could at any- 
future time be released from his iron yoke was made High 
Treason ; and so was to call him by word or in writing 
a heretick, schismatick, Infidel, or Usurper, made High 
Treason punishable with death. None but a bloody tyrant 
would attempt to take cognizance of the internal thoughts 
of the mind, or punish people with death for calling him 
heretick, schismatick or Infidel. Can any man after this 
imagine that the Separation from Rome, the Headship of 
Harry, or his plunderings, were the free-will actions of 
the Clergy or the Laity of England ? 

By 27 Henry VIII. Cap. 20, an. 1535, '' The King be- 
ing Supreme Head, under God, of the Church of England, 
willing the spiritual rights and duties of that Church to 
be preserved, contained and maintained, hath ordained 
and enacted by the authority of this present Parliament 
that all his Subjects in England^ Ireland, Wales ^ and Calais, 
shall yield and pay their tythes, offerings and other duties 
of Holy Church." The Act then goes on to point out the 
penalties to be inflicted on the defaulters. Now we come 
to the spoilation of the Religious houses. An Act was 
passed in that year entitled : 

Chajp. 28. All Monasteries given to the King, which have 
not lands above two hundred jpounds by the year. 

'^ ^ Forasmuch as manifest synne, vicious, carnal and 
abominable living is dayly used and committed commonly 
in such little and small Abbies, Priories and other Reli- 
gious houses of Monks, Canons, and Nuns, where the 
congregation of such Religious persons is under the 
number of twelve persons, whereby the Governors of 
such religious houses and Convents spoyle, destroy, con- 
sume and utterly waste, as well their Churches, Monas- 



32 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

teriesj Priories, farms, grai^es, tenements, as the orna- 
ments of their Churches, and their goods and Chattels, 
to the high displeasure of Almighty God, slander of good 
religion, and to the great infamy of the King's Highness 
and the Realm, if redress should not be had thereof And 
albeit that many continual visitations hath been hereto- 
fore had, by the space of two hundred years and more, 
for an honest and charitable reformation of such unthrifty, 
carnal, and abominable living, yet nevertheless little or 
none amendment is hitherto had, but their vicious living 
shamelessly increaseth and augmenteth, and by a cursed 
custom so rooted and infected, that a great multitude of 
the Religious persons in such houses do rather choose to 
rove abroad in apostacy than to conform themselves to 
the observation of good religion ; so that without such 
houses be utterly suppressed, and the religious persons 
therein committed to great and honorable Monasteries of 
religion in this Realm, where they may be compelled to 
live religiously for the reformation of their lives, the same 
else be no redress nor reformation in that behalf. In 
consideration whereof, the King's most Royal Majesty, 
being supreme Head of the Church of England, and con- 
sidering also that diverse and great solemn Monasteries 
of this Realm, wherein (thanks be to God) religion is 
right well kept and observed, be destitute of their full 
complement of Religious persons, hath by the same 
authority of this present Parliament finally resolved that 
his Majesty, his Heirs, and successors shall have and 
enjoy for ever, all and singular such Monasteries, Prio- 
ries, and other Religious House of Monks, Canons and 
Nuns, what order or name soever they be of, which have 
not in lands, tenements, rents, or tythes, above the clear 
yearly value of two hundred pounds.' 

What glaring hypocisy, and open contempt of every 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 33 

Law, human and Divine, is here presented to our view I 
Manifest sin, vicious and carnal living practised in all 
the minor Houses throughout the Kingdom ; they wasted 
their lands and tenements and Church ornaments, to the 
offence of God and man. Therefore let their inmates be 
hurled into the Great Monasteries, where, thanks be to 
God, religion was pure, w^ell kept and preserved ; and 
let the King, and his Successors, for ever, have and enjoy 
their property. Why not let the Great Monasteries take 
that property, as they were incumbered with the culprits ? 

There was no heresy or false doctrine imputed to 
them, but merely manifest synne, and vicious and carnal 
living. * 

Supposing, for argument sake, that they were mani- 
fest sinners and vicious livers, is the property of all such 
sinners to be forfeited to the Crown ? If the property of 
all manifest sinners and carnal livers be not to be forfeited, 
why seize, without hearing them in their own defence, 
upon the property of Religious persons, and hurl them 
pennyless into other Houses that might have no room or 
means to receive them ? When Harry deputed Commis- 
sioners to investigate and report the manner of living in 
the fated Houses, they, knowing that his object was plun- 
der, reported what would please him. That vicious liv- 
ing increaseth and augmenteth, and that by a cursed and 
deep-rooted custom a great many religious persons in the 
small houses roved abroad and apostatized, rather than 
conform to their religious Observances. 

All Religious Houses in the Kingdom that had not 
an income of i£200, and in which the inmates amounted 
not to twelve, were vicious and worthy to be suppressed ; 
but all houses above that income and number of per- 
sons were free from the infection ; £200 and twelve per- 
sons was the standard to distinguish the virtuous from 
the vicious Monasteries. 



34 ENGLISH SCHISM, 

31 Henry VIII., Chap. 9, An. 1539. An Ad authorizing the 
King^s Highness to make Bishops by his Letters Patent. 

'' Whereas the King's Highness had ere now made 
himself Head of the Church, and as the Statute just re- 
cited contains not one word more than the two lines that 
are given, it is to be presumed that he made Bishops by 
his Letters Patent just as unceremoniously as he created 
the civil and military officers, by a single act of his will. 
' Let such an one be our Bishop/ and he was, to all in- 
tents and purposes, and without any manner of consecra- 
tion, or religious ceremonies, a bishop. And whereas the 
Protestant law-established Church of England inherits 
Old Harry's Headship and Prelacy, but no other ; and 
whereas Harry and his Prelates, his aiders and abettors 
were excommunicated, as already observed, by the Pope, 
upon what principle can the modern Protestant Clergy, at 
home or abroad, claim any connection with the Apostles, 
or with the Church of Christ ? Their consecrations and 
ordinations are but profane and sacrilegious imitation of 
Christian rites, like the monkey's mimickry of human 
actions." 

31 Henry VIII, Cha.p. 13, An. 1539. An Act for the disso- 
lution of Monasteries and Abbies in general. 

'' By this Act were all the lands and houses and other 
properties of all sorts that appertain to the aforesaid 
suppressed Religious Houses confirmed to the King and 
his successors. The M Section of the Statute runs thus : 
^ And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, 
That not only all the late Monasteries, Abbacies, Priories, 
Nunneries, Colleges, Hospitals, Houses of Friars, but all 
other Religious Houses, &c., with all their properties and 
possessions, shall be deemed and adjudged by the author- 
ity of this present Parliament, in the very actual and real 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 35 

seisin and possession of the King our Sovereign, his 
Heirs and Successors for ever.' 

'' Notwithstanding the testimony borne four years be- 
fore to the integrity and purity of the great monasteries, 
this act sweeps them all, as well as the small ones, away, 
and gives their property to the king and his successors for 
ever. Baker, p. 410, relates 'that 645 Monasteries, 90 Col- 
leges, 110 Hospitals, and 2374 Chanteries and free Chapels 
were 'plundered and confiscated. The Members of both 
Houses of Parliament knew full well, when they passed 
these Acts, that the tyrant himself could not use all that 
plunder; that he would and should share it with them. 
Indeed the English and Irish and Scotch Aristocracy riot 
to this day on the estates and foundations that had been 
made by the piety of Antiquity for the orphans and 
widows ; for the sick and the aged and for the Religious. 
Previous to Old Harry's days the rich men, believing in 
the merit of good works, fed, clothed, and housed the 
indigent poor; but subsequent to him the infidels clear 
away the poor from their estates and cover them with 
sheep or oxen. Then the Christians had charity that 
loveth not her own but the things that belong to Christ. 
Now the accursed infidels love self and mammon, having 
banished the love of God and man from their nasty 
souls.'" 

31 Henry VIII. , Chap. 14, a?i. 1539. An Act for abolishing 
of Diversity of Opinions in certain Articles concerning 
Christian Religion. • 

*' Behold the famous Law of SIX ARTICLES, by 
which all the oppugners of Transubstantiation, Commu- 
nion in one kind, Celibacy of the Clergy, Vows of Chas- 
tity, Private Mass, and Auricular Confession, were 
declared hereticks. ' The denial of the first Article, that 
is, the Real Presence, subjected the offender to death by 



86 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

fire, and to the same forfeitures as in cases of Treason.' 
Hume^ Chajp. 31. * To preach openly against the last five 
Articles was punished with death, without the benefit of 
Clergy; but to declare or publish an opinion against 
them in any manner whatever, was attended with forfeit- 
ure of goods and chattels for life, and of spiritual pro- 
motion, together with imprisonment at the King's pleas- 
ure, for the first offence; and for the second, to the 
punishment of death as a felon without the privilege of 
sanctuary.' Hale^ Pleas of the Crowns p. 402. 

'' 34 and 35 Heiiry VIIZ, Chap. 1, an. 1542-3. ' Re- 
course must be had to the Catholick and Apostolick Church 
for the Decision of controversies; and therefore all Books 
of the Old and New Testament in English, being of 
TindaVs false translation or comprising any matter of 
Christian Religion, Articles of the faith, or holy Scrip- 
ture, contrary to the doctrines set forth sithence Ann, 
Dom. 1540, or to be set forth by the Kings, shall be abol- 
ished. No Printer or Bookseller shall utter any of the 
aforesaid Books. No person shall play an enterlude, sing 
or rhyme contrary to the said doctrine. No person shall 
retain any English Books or writing concerning Matters 
against the holy and blessed sacrament of the altar or for 
the maintenance of Anabaptists, or other books, abolished 
by the King's Proclamation. There shall be no Annota- 
tions, or Preambles in Bibles or New Testaments in 
English. The Bible shall not be read in English in any 
Church. No women or artificers, prentices, journeymen, 
servingmen of the degree of Yoemen or under, husband- 
men, nor labourers, shall read the New Testament, in 
English, Nothing shall be taught or maintained con- 
trary to the King's instructions. And if any Spiritual 
Person preach, teach, or maintain anything contrary to 
the King's instructions or determinations, made or to be 
made, and shall be thereof convict, he shall for his first 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 37 

offence recant, for his second objure and bare a faggot, 
and for his third, shall be adjudged an heretic, and be 
burned and lose all his goods and chattels.'" 

The two acts now quoted show that Harry, though 
he had shaken off the Pope and confiscated the religious 
institutions, was still anxious for the preservation of the 
Catholic religion — the Mass, Real Presence, Communion 
in one kind, Clerical Celibacy, Auricular Confession ; and 
for guarding the Bible from TindaPs false translation ; and 
that he be punished with death without benefit of clergy, 
with forfeiture of goods and chattels, with fire and racks, 
the impugners of the Catholic religion ; and all persons 
who would play an interlude, sing", or rhyme against it. 
But the miscreant labored in vain ; he was then a withered 
branch severed from the living tree, bereft of spiritual 
life, and therefore doomed to wither and decay. The edifice, 
which the apostate would build, soon totters and crumbles 
into pieces, 

Harry's Death. — Let an Englishman sketch his obitu- 
ary. " For a few years before he died, he became from 
his gluttony and debauchery an unwieldy and disgust- 
ing mass of flesh, moved about by means of machines ; 
but still he retained all the ferocity and bloodmindedness 
of his former days. The principal business of his life was 
the ordering of accusations, executions, and confiscations. 
When on his death-bed every one was afraid to intimate 
to him his danger, lest death to the intimater should be 
the consequence ; and he died before he was well aware 
of his condition, leaving more than one death-warrant 
unsigned for want of time. 

^' Thus expired, in the year 154T, in the fifty-sixth year 
of his age, and in the thirty-eighth of his reign, the most 
unjust, heart-hearted, meanest, and most sanguinary ty- 
rant that the world had ever beheld, whether christian 

3 



38 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

or heathen. That England which he found in peace, nnity^ 
plenty, and happiness, he left torn by factions and schisms, 
her people wandering about in beggary and misery. He 
laid the foundations of immorality, dishonesty, and pauper- 
ism, all which produced an abundant harvest in the reigns 
of his unhappy, barren, mischievous, and miserable child- 
ren, with whom, at the end of a few years, his house and 
his name were extinguished for ever. He entailed the 
Psalmist's curse upon them, Ps. cviii : May his children 
he cut offy in one generation ; may his name be blotted out. How 
he disposed of the plunder of the Church and of the poor ; 
how his successors completed that work of confiscation 
which he had carried on so long ; how the nation sunk 
in the point of character and of wealth ; how pauperism 
first arose in England ; and how were sown the seeds of 
that system, of which we now behold the effects in the 
impoverishment and degradation of the main body of the 
people of England and Ireland ; all these will be shown 
in the next number ; and shown, I trust, in a manner 
which will leave in the mind of every man of sense no 
doubt that, of all the scourges that ever afflicted this 
country, none is to be put in comparison with the Pro- 
testant Reformation." Cobbett. Hist. Reform, pp. 190, 191. 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 89 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MASS ABOLISHED THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER 

INSTITUTED. 

2 and 3 Edicard VI. Chap. 1. ^'Whereas, of long 
time, there hath been had in this realm of England and 
in Wales, divers Forms of Common Prayer, commonly 
called the Service of the Church, that is to say, the use 
of Sarum, of York, of Bangor and of Lincoln ; and besides 
the same, now of late much more divers and sundry 
forms and fashions have been used in the cathedral and 
parish churches of England and Wales, as well concern- 
ing the Mattens or Morning Prayer and the Evensong, as 
also concerning the Holy Communion, commonly called 
Mass, with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies con- 
cerning the same, and in the administration of other 
Sacraments of the Church : And as the doers and execu- 
tors of the said rites and ceremonies, in other form than 
of late years they have been used, were pleased there- 
with ; so others not using the same rites and ceremonies 
were thereby greatly offended : And Albeit the King^s 
Majesty, with the advice of his most entirely beloved 
uncle, the Lord Protector, and other of his Highness 
Council, hath heretofore divers times assayed to stay in- 
novations, or new rights concerning the premisses ; yet 
the same hath not had such good success as his Highness 
required in that behalf ; whereupon his Highness, by the 
most prudent advice aforesaid, being pleased to bear 
with the frailty and weakness of his subjects in that be- 
half, of his great clemency hath not been only content to 
abstain from punishment of those that have offended in 



40 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

that behalf, for that his Highness taketh that they did 
it of a good zeal ; but also to the intent a uniform, 
quiet and godly order should be had concerning the 
premises, hath appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury 
and certain of the most learned and discreet bishops, and 
other learned men of this realm, to consider and ponder 
the premises ; and thereupon having as well an eye and 
respect to the most sincere and pure Christian religion 
taught by the Scripture, as to the usages in the primitive 
Church, should draw and make one convenient and meet 
Order, Rite, and Fashion of Common and open Prayer 
and Adminstration of the Sacraments, to be had and 
used in his Majesty^s realm of England and in Wales; 
the which at this time, by the aid of the Holy Ghost^ with 
one uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth 
and delivered to his Highness, to his great comfort and 
quietness of mind, in a book intituled, TAc Book of the 
Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments ^ and 
other Rites and Ceremonies of the Churchy after the Use of the 
Church of England. 

*' Wherefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the 
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, consider- 
ing as well the most godly travel of the King^s Highness, 
of the Lord Protector, and of other his Highness Coun- 
cil, in gathering and collecting the said Archbishops, 
Bishops, and learned men together, as the godly Prayers, 
Orders, Rites, and Ceremonies in the said book mentioned, 
and the considerations of altering those things which he 
altered, and retaining those things which he retained in 
the said book, but also the honor of God and great quiet- 
ness, which, by the grace of God, shall ensue upon the 
one and uniform Rite and Order in such Common Prayer 
and Rites and external Ceremonies to be used throughout 
England and in Wales, at Calice, and the Marches of the 
same, do give to his Highness most hearty and lowly 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 41 

thanks for the same. And humbly prayen that it may 
be ordained and enacted by his Majesty, with the assent 
of the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same, that all 
and singular person and persons that have offended con- 
cerning the premises, other than such person and persons 
as now be and remain in the Tower of London, or in the 
Fleet, may be pardoned thereof ; and that all and singu- 
lar ministers in any Cathedral or Parish Church, or other 
place within this realm of England, Wales, Calice, and the 
Marches of the same, or other the King's dominions, 
shall, from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming, 
be bounden to say and use the Mattens, Evensong, Cele- 
bration of the Lord's Supper, commonly called the Mass, 
and Administration of each of the Sacraments, and all 
their common and open Prayer, in such order and form 
as is mentioned in the same book, and none other or 
otherwise. And albeit that the same be so godly and 
good, that they give occasion to every honest and con- 
formable man most willingly to embrace them, yet, lest 
any obstinate person willingly would disturb so godly 
order and quiet in this realm should not go unpunished, 
that it may also be ordained and enacted, by the authority 
aforesaid. 

^' That if any manner of Parson, Vicar, or other 
Minister whatsoever, that ought or should sing or say 
Common Prayer mentioned in the said book, or minister 
the Sacraments, shall, after the said Feast of Pentecost 
next coming, refuse to use the said Common Prayers, or 
to minister the Sacraments in such Cathedral or Parish 
Church, or other places, as he should use or minister the 
same, in such order and form as they be mentioned and 
set forth in the said book ; or shall use, wilfully and ob- 
stinately standing in the same, any other Rite, Ceremony, 
Order, Form, or manner of Mass, openly or privily, or 



42 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

Mattens, Evensong, Administration of the Sacraments, 
or other Open Prayer than is mentioned and set forth in 
the said book (Open prayer in and throughout this Act, 
is meant that Prayer which is for other to come unto or 
hear, either in common Churches or Drivate Chapels or 
Oratories, commonly called the Service of the Church ;) 
or shall preach, declare, or speak anything in the dero- 
gation or depraving of the said book, or anything therein 
contained, or of any part thereof ; and shall be thereof law- 
fully convicted according to the laws of this realm, by 
verdict of twelve men, or by his own confession, or by 
the notorious evidence of the fact, shall lose and forfeit 
to the King's Highness, his Heirs and Successors, for 
the first offence, the profit of such one of his spiritual 
benefices or promotions as it shall please the King's High- 
ness to assign or appoint, coming and arising in one 
whole year next after his conviction : And also that the 
same person so convicted shall, for the same offence, suf- 
fer imprisonment by the space of six months, without 
bail or mainprise : And if any such person once convict 
of any such offence concerning the premises, shall, after 
his first conviction, eftsoons offe^ and be thereof in form 
aforesaid lawfully convict, that then the same person shall 
for his second offence sufi'er imprisonment by the space 
of one whole year ; and also shall therefore be deprived 
ipso facto of all his spiritual promotions : and that it shall 
be lawful to all patrons, donors, and grantees, of all and 
singular the same spiritual promotions, to present to the 
same any other able clerk, in like manner and form as 
though the party so offending were dead : And that if 
any such person or persons, after he shall be twice con- 
victed in form aforesaid, shall offend against any of the 
premises the third time, and shall be thereof in form afore- 
said lawfully convicted, that then the person so offend- 
ing and convicted the third time, shall suffer imprison- 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 43 

ment during his life. And if the person that shall offend 
and be convict in form aforesaid concerning any of the 
premises, shall not be beneficed nor have any spiritual 
promotion, that then the same person so offending and 
convict shall, for the first offence, suffer imprisonment 
during six months, without bail or mainprise : And if any 
such person not having any spiritual promotion, after his 
first conviction, shall eftsoons offend in anything concern- 
ing the premisses, and shall in form aforesaid be thereof 
lawfully convicted, that then the same person shall, for 
Lis second offence, suffer imprisonment during his life. 

^^ And it is ordained and enacted by the authority 
aforesaid, that if any person or persons whatsoever, after 
the said Feast of Pentecost^ next coming, shall, in any en- 
terludos, plays, songs, rhimes, or by other open words, 
declare or speak anything in the derogation, depraving or 
desoising of the same book or of anything therein con- 
tained, or in any part thereof; or shall by open fact, deed, 
or by open threatnings, compel, or cause, or otherwise 
procure or maintain, any Parson, Yicar, or other Minister 
in any Cathedral or Parish Church, or in any Chapel or 
other place, to sing or say any common and open prayer, 
or to minister any Sacrament otherwise or in any other 
manner or form than is mentioned in the said book ; or 
that, b}^ any of the said means, shall unlawfully interrupt, 
or let any Parson, Vicar, or other Ministers, in any Ca- 
thedral or Parish Church, Chapel, or any other place, to 
sing or say common and open Prayer, or to minister the 
Sacraments, or any of them, in any such manner and form 
as is mentioned in the said book ; That then every person 
being thereof lawfully convicted in form abovesaid, shall 
forfeit to the King, our Sovereign Lord, his Heirs and 
Successors, for the first offence ten pounds. And if any 
person or persons, being once convicted of any such of- 
fence, eftsoons offend against an^^ of the premisses, and 



44 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convict, that 
then the same persons so offending and convict, shall, for 
the second offence, forfeit to the King, our Sovereign 
Lord, his Heirs and Successors, twenty pounds : And if 
any person, after he in form aforesaid shall have been 
twice convict of any offence concerning any of the pre- 
misses, shall offend the third time, and be thereof in form 
abovesaid lawfully convict, that then every person so 
offending and convict shall for his third offence forfeit to 
our Sovereign Lord the King all his goods and chattels* 
and shall suffer imprisonment during his life. And if any 
person or persons, that for his first offence concerning the 
premisses shall be convict in form aforesaid, do not pay 
the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction, in such 
manner and form as the same ought to be paid, within 
six weeks next after his conviction ; that then every per- 
son so convict, and so not paying the same, shall, for the 
first offence, instead of the said ten pounds, suffer impris- 
onment by the space of three months without bail or 
mainprise. And if any person or persons, that for his 
second offence concerning the premisses shall be convict 
in form aforesaid, do not pay the sum to be paid by vir- 
tue of his conviction, in such manner and form as the same 
ought to be paid within 'six weeks next after his said 
second conviction ; that then every person so convicted, 
and not so paying the same, shall, for the same second of- 
fence, in the stead of the said twenty pounds, suffer im- 
prisonment during six months, without bail or mainprise." 

Let us now take in review the birth, growth and 
progress of the Protestant Church, as by Law established. 
First, Henry Vlll.y whilst he professed and struggled to 
uphold the Catholick faith of Christendom, sets aside the 
Supreme Pontiff, and makes himself the Spiritual Head : 
second, he plunders and dissolves, now the minor religious 
houses, and then all sorts of Convents, Monasteries,. Free 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 45 

Schools, and Chapels : and lastly, his son Edw. FZ, abol- 
ishes totally the Catholick Church and substitutes for the 
Mass Book and Breviary the novel, unheard-of thing, called 
the Book of Common Prayer; for the Canons and Decrees 
of antiquity, he places the 39 Articles; and instead of 
the Pope, he makes himself the Supreme Pastor of Eng- 
lishmen. To use the words of the great William Colhett, 
Legacy to Par sons , ^. 21 : 

'' Here we have a faithful account of the Birth of this 
famous Church, which simply put it to the priests and the 
people — Behold this Church ; take it^ or take pecuniary ruin 
and imprisoninent for life. And in the face of these unde- 
niable facts, is there any one base enough to say that the 
Catholick Priests were not ousted by force and by acts 
of Parliament ? The Act provides for the depriving of 
the party of his benefices and of all his spiritual promo- 
tions whatsoever, unless he apostatize from the Catholick 
Religion; and it authorizes patrons to appoint Protestant 
ministers to succeed him, in just the same manner, as if 
he were dead. Will Sir Robert Peel call this a reformed 
Catholick Churchy then ? Will he again say, the Protestant 
parsons stand in the prescriptive shoes of the Catholick 
Priests V 

Edward VI. died in the year 1553, the sixteenth of his 
age and sixth of his reign, having bequeathed to his 
country four diabolical statutes: the first, that which re- 
peals all the laws provided by his father for the preserv- 
ation of the Catholic faith of Christendom, and secures 
his spiritual headship; the second, that which institutes 
the Protestant Church, and the Book of Common Prayer; 
the third, that which abolishes the Catholic Church, with 
all its books, rites, and ceremonies; and the fourth, that 
which confirms the foregoing three statutes, and which pro- 
vides new and more stringent penalties against non-con- 

3* 



46 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

formists. Poor England ! it is indeed miraculous that 
you have not utterly lost the faith of Christ. If kind Provi- 
dence had not willed that the seeds should remain, not a 
Catholic could be had at the present time within thy 
borders. 

Queen Mary. — Mary, the eldest daughter and ojily 
legitimate child of Henry VIIL, now ascends the throne. 
She, being a zealous Catholic, and therefore desirous to 
re-establish the Catholic Church, and to heal the deadly 
wounds that were during the last reign inflicted upon 
religion, grants religious toleration, in general, and passes 
an Act to reconcile England with the Holy See. 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 4t 



CHAPTER IV. 

REUNION OF ENGLAND WITH THE HOLY SEE. 

*' 1 and 2 Mary, Chapter 8. ' Whereas, since the twen- 
tieth year of King Henry the Eighth of famous Memory, 
Father unto your Majesty, our most natural sovereign 
and gracious lady and Queen, much false and erroneous 
doctrine hath been taught, preached and written, partly by 
divers, the natural born subjects of this Realm, and partly 
being brought in hither from sundry other foreign Coun- 
tries, hath been sown and spread abroad within the same : 
By reason whereof, as well the Spirituality as the Tem- 
porality of your Majesty's Highness Realms and domin- 
ions have swerved from the obedience of the See Apos- 
tolick, and declined from the Unity of Christ's church, and 
so have continued, until such time as your Majesty being 
first raised up by God, and set in the seat Royal over us, 
and then by his Divine and gracious Providence knit in 
marriage with the most noble and virtuous Prince the 
King our Lord, your husband, the Pope's Holiness and the 
See Apostolick sent hither unto your majesties (as unto 
persons undefiled, and by God's goodness preserved from 
the common infection aforesaid,) and to the whole Realm, 
the most holy Father in God, the Lord Cardinal Pole, 
Legate a latere to call us again into the right way from 
which we have all this long while wandered and strayed 
abroad ; and we, after sundry, long and grievous plagues 
and calamities, seeing by the Goodness of God our own 
errors, have acknowledged the same unto the said most 
Reverend Father, and by him have been and are rather 
at the contemplation of your Majesties, received and em- 



48 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

braced unto the bosom of Christ's Church, and upon hum- 
ble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our 
Repentance, to repeal and abrogate such Acts and Stat- 
utes, as had been made in Parliament since the said 
twentieth year of the said King Henry the Eighth, against 
the Supremacy of the See Apostolick, as in our submission 
exhibited to the said most Reverend Father in God by 
your Majesties appeareth. The Tenor whereof ensueth. 

'* ' We, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the 
Commons, assembled in the present Parliament, repre- 
senting the whole Body of the Realm of England and the 
Dominions of the same, in the name of ourselves particu- 
larly, and also of the said Body universally, in this our 
supplication directed to your Majesties, with the most 
humble suit, that it may by your Grace's Intercession 
and means be exhibited to the most Reverend Father in 
God, the Lord Cardinal Pole, Legate, sent specially hither 
from our most Holy Father Pope Julian the Third, and 
the See Apostolick oiRome^ to declare ourselves very sorry 
and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed 
in this Realm and Dominions aforesaid against the See 
Apostolick, either by making, agreeing, or executing, any 
Laws, Ordinances, or Commandments, against the Suprem- 
acy of the said See, or otherwise doing, or speaking, 
what might impugn the same : offering ourselves and 
promising by this our Supplication, that for a Token 
and Knowledge of our said repentance, we be, and shall 
be always ready, under and with the Authorities of your 
Majesties, to the uttermost of our powers, to do that 
shall lie in us for the abrogation and repealing of the 
said Laws and Ordinances, in this present Parliament, as 
well for ourselves, as for the whole Body we represent : 
Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesties, as 
Personages undefiled in the offence of this Body towards 
the said See, which nevertheless God by his Providence 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 49 

hath made subject to you, so to set forth this our humble 
Suit, that we may obtain from the See Apostolick, by the 
same most Reverend Father, as well particularly and 
generally. Absolution, Release and Discharge from all 
danger of such Censures and Sentences, as by the Laws 
of the Church we be fallen into ; and that we may as 
Children repentant be received into the bosom and Unity 
of Christ's Church, so as this noble Realm with all the 
members thereof, may in this Unity and perfect Obedience 
to the See Apostolick, and Popes for the time being, serve 
God and your Majesties, to the furtherance and advance- 
ment of his Honor and Glory. 

" ' We are, at the intercession of your Majesties, by 
the authority of our holy Father Pope Julian the Third, 
and of the See Apostolick, assoiled, discharged and deliv- 
ered from the Excommunications, Interdictions, and other 
Censures Ecclesiastical, which hath hanged over our 
heads, for our said defaults, since the time of the said 
Schism mentioned in our supplication. It may now like 
your Majesties, that for the Accomplishment of our Pro- 
mise made in the same said Supplication, that is to repeal 
all the laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Su- 
premacy and See Apostolick, during the said Schism, the 
which is to be understood since the twentieth year of the 
reign of the said late King Henry the Eighth, and so the 
Lord Legate doth accept and recognise the same.' 

Having made that solemn declaration of repentance 
for their enormities against the Church of Christ and the 
Supreme Pontiff ; and given a solemn promise that they 
would repeal and render void whatever laws had been 
previously levelled against the Apostolick See, they, both 
Houses of Parliament, threw themselves on their knees 
before His Eminence Cardinal Pole, who in the name, and 
by the authority of His Holiness Julian III. granted them 
absolution from all their censures and heresies. Now 



50 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

that they were once more on the paths of their fathers, 
in the Bosom of the Catholic Church, it might be rea- 
sonably expected they would persevere therein until the 
hour of death, but it turned otherwise : for they soon re 
turned to the vomit. Soon after Mary^s death in 1558, 
the fifth year of her reign, they re-apostatized and de- 
clared null and void all the laws which had been passed 
in behalf of the Catholic faith ; taking good care to se- 
cure for themselves by Acts of Parliament the whole 
of the Church plunder that had been already in their hands. 
Here it should be remarked that Mary alone could 
be called the legitimate issue of Henry : She being born 
of his lawful wife, Catherine, of Arragon ; Edward and 
Elizabeth were illegitimate children — bastards, because 
they were born of Anne Boleyn in the life-time of said 
lawful wife. Moreover, supposing, what is not so, in fact, 
that Henry's divorce from Catherine, and his nuptials 
with Anne, were consonant to the laws of God and of the 
Church, Elizabeth was a Bastardy because she was born 
four months subsequent to her mother's nominal marriage. 

Protestant historians combine to vilify Mary's char- 
acter ; they style her persecutor and murderer, and so forth 
But we have at hand facts to refute the slanderer ; first 
no one clause appears in the foregoing statute to coerce 
the Protestants into the Catholic Church ; second, she left 
no penal law in the Statute Book against heretics or 
schismatics, whilst every page is loaded with the bloody 
decrees of the '' reformed'' rulers to compel the Catholics 
to conform to the new religion. Mary was aware that, 
when the people had fair play and religious freedom, they 
would come of themselves ; but the Protestant rulers, 
knew that the people would not join them without co- 
ercion. This proves that they, but not Mary, should be 
called bloody persecutors. 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 51 

There were, it is true, executions during her reign, 
not for religion, but for treason : two rebellions — the one 
in behalf of Lady Jane Grey, and the other called Wyat's 
rebellion — broke out and were crushed in her days. How- 
ever, the executions were, if credit be due to the Pro- 
testant historian Higgons^page 218, but few, in comparison 
to those in the Protestant reigns. All impartial writers 
allow that Mary had a strong sense of religion, and that 
she was consequently pacific and forgetful of injuries. 
Her only object was to heal the wounds which had been 
inflicted upon religion, restore the religious houses, and 
re-unite her kingdom with the Church of Christ ; which 
she effected, as we have seen, in the foregoing Act. 



52 ENGLISH SCHISM. 



CHAPTER V. 

ENGLAND RELAPSED INTO THE SCHISM. 

On the demise of Mary, her illegitimate sister Eliza- 
beth mounts the throne. She hitherto professed the Ca- 
tholick faith and was crowned by a Catholick bishop, 
and would, there is no reason to doubt, persevere in the 
profession of the same faith, had it not been for the fol- 
lowing circumstance : she sent an ambassador to inform 
the Father of the faithful how it was the will of Provi- 
dence to raise her to the throne of her ancestors ; and to 
pray that he would look upon her as an unworthy yet 
faithful member of his flock, and as the lawful heir of the 
Crown. But whereas it had been then repugnant to the 
laws of all Christian Countries, as it is yet abhorrent 
to usage and common decency, that the offspring of the 
adulterous bed rule over any sensitive, high-minded peo- 
ple, either in Church or State, the Pope replied that he 
could not bring himself, by assenting to her petition 
to outrage the laws and customs of society. Here the 
die is cast ; the destiny of the Protestant Church and 
Book of Common Prayer depended upon a single throw. 
Had the Pope consented to Elizabeth^s request, Protest- 
ancy would be crushed in its very embryo. Therefore, 
Elizabeth, seeing that her dignity and the Papal Power 
could not stable together in England — that she must live 
in obscurity or discard the Pope for ever, she preferred 
the latter course, and fell into the steps of her father and 
brother. She found willing tools in the Aristocracy ; who 
also had their fears that if the Papal authority would 
revive, or if the people would settle down in the Catholick 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 53 

worship, the Church plunder should be restored for the 
original purposes. 

Thus is England once more, through the pride and 
ambition of a bastard Queen, and the sacrilege and infi- 
delity of a base Nobility, plunged into the gulf of Schism. 
Neither preacher, nor poet, nor painter, nor orator, gets 
any longer a pension, patronage, or promotion, if he do not 
exhibit some hideous picture of bishops, priests, nuns, or 
friars. All blood-hounds were let loose upon them ; whilst 
no man had liberty or courage to defend them, until the 
first relaxation of the Penal Laws in 1172. Tlie foul 
slanders that were then got up and circulated by the 
Church robbers operates more or less ever since ; ' Super- 
stition,' * Inquisition,' ^ Popery,' are represented as terrific 
ghosts, to scare Protestants to death. 

Elizabeth shook off the Pope, repealed the whole of 
Mary's laws on behalf of the Catholick faith ; revived 
whatever bloody laws were enacted by her father and 
brother against that faith ; together with many severer 
laws of her own creation ; and behold, she constituted 
herself, the very first year of her reign, as Supreme Head 
of the Church. 

The horrible Parliament that had in the last reign 
condemned and exploded, as schismatical, the Book of 
Common Prayer, and reinstated the Catholick Priests, 
now again ousted them from the Churches and re-enacted 
the same Book, and commanded under the severest pen- 
alties that it should be used in all the Churches. For the 
first offence the priest was to forfeit a year's revenue of 
his Benefice, and be imprisoned for six months ; for the 
second, his spiritual preferments and possessions, and be 
imprisoned during life. If he were an unbenificed priest, 
he was to be for the first offence imprisoned for twelve 
months ; and for the second, during life. To ridicule the 
Book of Common Prayer, or the new religion, by songs. 



54 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

plays, or rhymes of any sort, would be punished with a 
fine of a hundred Marks for the first offence ; and four 
hundred Marks (equal to two thousand pounds of the 
present day) for the second offence ; and for the third, 
the culprit was to forfeit to the Queen all his goods and 
chattels, and be imprisoned for life. All persons were 
compelled to attend at Church on Sundays and holidays, 
and to hear this Common Prayer Book read, under heavy 
penalties, and in failure of paying said penalties, to be 
confined. 

Bishops, Archdeacons, and other Dignitaries were 
to have power for inflicting these punishnlents. This Act 
of confiscation, of ruin, of stripes, of death, was enforced 
with all the rigor that imagination can conceive. The 
Queen reigned forty-five years, and those forty-five years 
were spent in deeds of such cruelty as the world had 
never heard or read of before ; and all this for the pur- 
pose of compelling her people to submit to this Estab- 
lished Church. With regard to the cruelties of this mon- 
ster in woman^s shape ; her butcherings ; her rippings-up ; 
her racks ; her torments of every description, in which she 
was always cordially supported by the makers of the Prayer 
Book — the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, I must refer the 
reader to Cobbett, Hist. Reform, and his Legacy to Parsons. 

" Tiie main thing, however, to be kept in view here, 
is the fact, fully confirmed by all these pains, penalties, 
and prisons, that the Protestant Church was created by 
Acts of Parliament; that it has no existence as a Church; 
that it has no Rite, no Ceremony, no Creed, or Liturgy, 
that did not spring from an Act of Parliament; that it 
never took its origin from the Apostles; that it cannot 
claim any connection whatever with any church that 
was founded by them. It was manifestly not made by 
Christ, nor by his Apostles; but it was made by the 
Parliament, 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 55 

*' Had the men composing the Parliament resembled 
the Fathers of the Church in piety and disinterestedness, 
their character would reflect lustre on their doings. But 
when we find their new thing conceived by lust, fostered 
by plunder, and matured and sheltered by prisons, chains, 
and confiscations; when we see Harry, first, bolting by 
reason of his marriages and divorces ; secondly, loading 
his abettors with Church plunder; and, finally, when we 
see him, his Heirs, and Successors, forcing the new inven- 
tion upon the people with the most barbarous cruelty, can 
we ascribe that Church or that Common Prayer Book to 
the Spirit of Truth ? The Parliament remained Catho- 
lick whilst the plunder was secure ; then they became 
Protestants, made the Church and its Prayer Book, and 
ascribed the undertaking to the Holy Ghost; afterwards 
they wheeled about, turned Catholicks, declared the Pro- 
testant Church and the Common Prayer Book schismatical, 
and supplicated the Catholick Queen to procure for them 
the absolution of the Pope for having made this Church 
and Prayer Book, which they had ascribed to the Holy 
Ghost; afterwards they recant, re-apostatize, re-enact the 
Common Prayer Book, and re-enforce it upon the people 

'' There is one thing remarkable in their changings 
and shiftings, and that one thing is this: when they were 
dragging the people from the Catholic to the Protestant 
Church, they had to use the goad, to inflict penalties ; but 
when they were recalling them, in Mary^s reign, from the 
Protestant to the Catholic Church, they had no penalties 
to inflict, they gave the people free will to come or not to 
come. They knew full well that it was by compulsion 
the people became Protestants, and that thex'e was no 
need of compulsion to bring them back, 

*' ' Thus was this Church established, not, as her de- 
fenders pretend, by the reasonableness of the institution 
itself; not bylts own inherent beauty and simplicity ^ as the 



56 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

fat and impudent pluralists tell us; not by the pretended 
reform of abuses ; but solely by Acts of Parliament, of the 
most severe and cruel character, and executed with the 
most savage barbarity. The authors of these Acts were 
triple apostates; by far the most shameless apostates, the 
most barefaced, the most unblushing, that the world has 
ever seen. The origin of this Church, then, is not only 
to be found in mere Acts of Parliament, but in Acts of 
Parliament causing sheer force, bodily coercion, pains and 
penalties at every step, to be used ; this is the main thing 
to be kept in view by every enquirer of the truth.' Cob- 
bettj Legacies of Parsons^ p. 32. 

'' The Acts of Parliament to be attended to in a par- 
ticular manner are those heretofore quoted. As one of 
them relates to the making of the Common Prayer Book 
by CRANMER and his associates, we must stop for a 
moment to enquire a little what this CRANMER was. 
We know that he was Archbishop of Canterbury at the 
time when he made this Prayer Book . . . But as we are 
now speaking of that famous Church of which he was the 
founder, ^nd of that Prayer Book of which he was the 
principal author, I must give, respecting him, an extract 
from my History of the Protestant Keformation; for without 
knowing who and what he was, we shall not have all the 
merits of this Church fairly before us. 

'* ' Black as many others are, they bleach the moment 
that Cranmer appears in his true colors. But alas I 
where is the pen or tongue to give us those colors ? Of 
the 65 years that he lived, and of the 35 years of his 
manhood, 29 years were spent in the commission of a 
series of acts, which for wickedness in their nature, and 
for mischief in their consequences, are absolutely without 
any thing approaching to a parallel in the annals of hu- 
man infamy. Being a fellow of a College at Cambridge, 
and having, of course, made an engagement, as the feU 



ENGLISHSCHISM. 57 

lows do to this day, not to marry while he was a fellow, he 
married secretly^ and still enjoyed his fellowship. While 
a married man, he became a priest and took the oath of 
Celibacy, and, going to Germany, he married another wife, 
the daughter of a Protestant, so that he had now two 
wives at one time, though his oath bound him to have no 
wife at all/ 

" * He, as Archbishop, enforced the laws of Celibacy, 
while he himself se'cretly kept his German frow in the 
palace of Canterbury ; having imported her in a chest. 
He, as Ecclesiastical judge, divorced Henry VIIL from 
three wives, the grounds of his decision in two of the cases 
being directly the contrary of those which he himself had 
laid down when he declared the marriages to be valid ; and, 
in the case of Anne Boleyn, he, as ecclesiastical judge, 
pronounced that Anne had never been the King^s wife ; while, 
as member of the House of Peers, he voted for her death, 
as having been an adultress, and thereby guilty of treason 
to her husband. As Archbishop under Henry (which oflBce 
he entered upon with a premeditated false oath on his lips) 
he sent men and women to the stake, because they were not 
Catholicks, and he sent Catholicks to the stake, because 
they would not acknowledge the King's supremacy, and 
thereby perjure themselves, as he had so often done. 

*^ ^ Become openly a Protestant in Edward's reign, and 
openly professing those very principles for the professing 
of which he had burnt others, he now burnt his fellow- 
Protestants, because their grounds for protesting were dif- 
ferent from his. As Executor of the Will of his old master, 
Henry, which gave the crown (after Edward) to his 
daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, he conspired with others 
to rob those two daughters of their rights, and to give 
the crown to Lady Jane Gray, that Queen of nine days, 
whom he and others ordered to be proclaimed. Confined, 
notwithstanding his many monstrous crimes, merely to 



58 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

the palace at Lambeth, he, in requital for the Queerrs 
lenity, plotted with traitors in the pay of France to over- 
set the Government. Brought at last to trial and to con- 
demnation as a heretic, he professed himself ready to 
recant. He was respited for six weeks, during which time 
he signed six different forms of recantation, e^oh more ample 
than the former. He declared that the Protestant relig- 
ion wa>s false; that the Catholic religion was the only true 
one; that he believed in all the doctrines of the Catholic 
Church ; that he had been a horrid blasphemer against 
the sacrament ; that he was unworthy of forgiveness ; 
that he prayed the People, the Queen and the Pope, to 
have pity on, and to pray for, his wretched soul ; and that 
he made and signed this declaration without fear and 
without hope of favor, and for the discharge of his con- 
science, and as a warning to others. 

' ^* ' It was a question in the Queen's council whether he 
should be pardoned as other recanters had been ; but it 
was resolved that his crimes were so enormous, that it 
would be unjust to let him escape : to which might have 
been added that it could have done the Catholic Church 
no honor to see reconciled to it a wretch covered with 
robberies, perjuries, treason and bloodshed. Brought, 
therefore, to the public reading of his recantation on his 
way to the stake, seeing the pile ready, now finding that 
he must die, and carrying in his heart all his malignity undi- 
minished, he recanted his recantation^ thrust into the fire the 
hand that had signed it, and thus expired, protesting 
against that very religion in whjch, only nine hours before, 
he had called God to witness that he firmly believed.' SameP 

Queen Elizabeth's reign was one of blood, rapine, and 
proscription. Her court was the most lewd and licen- 
tious ever seen before in England : her deeds were marked 
by despotism, and her ministers the most profligate and 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 59 

mercenary that ever cursed a people. She beheaded a 
female sovereign, the beautiful Mary Stuart, and cut off 
the head of her own paramour Essex. She established 
domiciliary researches, made new treasons, encouraged 
informers, and created the star chamber. The courts of 
justice were corrupted by her connivance ; imprisonment 
exercised at her pleasure, and loans raised by force and 
exaction. Torture was used to extort confession, and her 
whole reign, in short, was one of arbitrariness and cruelty. 
Such a succession of unchristian proceedings could not 
go unpunished. Baker in his Chronicle relates that, in 
her third year, the spire of St. PauFs cathedral was des- 
troyed by lightning. Many strange births happened. 
In her sixth year the pestilence was brought into England, 
of which there died in London 21,500 persons in one 
year. In the thirteenth year of her reign, a prodigious 
earthquake occurred in the east parts of Herefordshire- 
In her sixteenth year there was a great dearth. In the 
year following, the river Thames ebbed and flowed twice 
within one hour, and in the month of November the hea- 
vens seemed to be all on fire. On the 24th of February, 
in the succeeding year, during a great frost, after a great 
flood there came down the river Severn such a swarm of 
flies and beetles, that they were judged to be an hundred 
quarters ; the mills thereabouts were dammed up by them 
for the space of four days, and were then cleaned by dig- 
ging them out with shovels." Mr. Antony Wood, Protest- 
ant historian of Oxford, Hist. Ant. Univers. Ozan. 1, 
p. 294, relates, that on the 4th of July, Mr. Roland Jinks, a 
Catholic bookseller in Oxford, for having in his shop the 
Pope's bulls and Catholic papers, was cast into prison, 
and most unjustly condemned to lose all his property, and 
to have both his ears nailed to the pillory, and to deliver 
himself by cutting them off with his own hands ; but no 
sooner was the sentence passed, than a most dreadful dis- 



60 ENGLISH SCHISM. 

ease burst forth in the midst of the Court, and seized 
upon all there present. Great numbers dropped down 
dead on the spot ; others rushed out of the court half 
suffocated, and died a few hours after. In the space of 
two days nearly all the witnesses died ; and in the first 
night about 600 lost their lives, and the next day it seized 
upon 100 in the nearest streets. The disease was a kind 
of fury : for the sick leaped out of bed, and beat with 
sticks all those who came to assist them ; some ran through 
the courts and streets like madmen, and others threw 
themselves down headlong into deep waters. Every hall, 
every college, every house had their dead : and what is 
more remarkable, all the grand jury, except one or two, 
died as soon as they left Oxford. 

Baker writes : *' In her two and twentieth year a 
strange apparition appeared in Somersetshire : threescore 
personages, all clothed in black, a furlong in distance 
from those that beheld them ; after their appearing, and 
a little while tarrying, they vanished away, but imme- 
diately another strange company in like manner, color 
and number, appeared in the same place ; and they en- 
countered one another, and so vanished away ; and a third 
time appeared that number again, all in bright armor, 
and encountered one another, and so vanished away. This 
was examined before Sir George Norton, and sworn by 
four honest men that saw it to be true. In her twenty- 
third year, in the beginning of April, about six o^clock 
afternoon, happened an earthquake not far from York, 
which in some places struck the very stones out of the 
buildings and made the bells in some churches to jangle. 
The night following, the earth trembled once or twice in 
Kent, and again the first of May.^' 

In her thirty-fifth year there was such a drought that 
the springs were dried up and cattle died for want of 
water. The Thames was so low that a man on horseback 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 61 

might ride over it at London bridge. The year following, 
there was a great plague in London and the suburbs, of 
which there died, besides the Lord Mayor and three Alder- 
men, 17,890 persons. In her thirty-eighth year, Lord 
Hundsdon, being sick to death, saw six of his companions 
already dead, come to him one after another. The first 
was Dudley, Earl of Leicester, all on fire ; the second was 
Secretary Walsingham, also in fire and flame ; the third, 
Pickering, so cold and frozen, that touching Hundsdon's 
hand, he thought he should die of cold ; the fourth, Hatton, 
Lord Chancellor i the fifth, Henneage 5 and the sixth, 
Knolles, These three last were also on fire : they told 
him that Sir William Cecil, one of their companions yet 
living, was to prepare himself to come shortly to them. 
All this was afiirmed upon oath by the said Lord Hunds- 
don, who a few days after died suddenly. This is re- 
corded by Fr. Costerus, in Compendio Veteris Orthodoxce, 
Fidei, and also by Philip Pultreanan, in hi.sbook entitled 
Pedagogue Ghretienne, p. 186. 

Qmen ElizaheWs Last Days. — In Parson, Discussion 
with Barlow, page 218 says: that Queen Elizabeth, in 
the beginning of her last sickness, told two of her ladies 
that she saw, one night, as she lay in bed, her body ex- 
ceeding lean and fearful, in a light fire. Cambledon, her 
panegyrist and writer of her life, gives this account of 
her last sickness : — -In the beginning of her sickness the 
almonds of her throat swelled, but soon again abated ; 
then her appetite failed by degrees ; and withal she gave 
herself over to melancholy and seemed to be much 
troubled with peculiar grief for some reason or other ; 
whether it were through the violence of her disease or 
for the want of Essex, &c. She looked upon herself as a 
miserable forlorn woman, and her grief and indignation 
extorted from her such speeches as these : They have yoked 
my necJc; I have none whom lean trust. My condition is strangely 

4 



62 ENGLISH s c PI I s :\r . 

turned upside downj^ Camhledon^s History. Lib.Y.jp. 659, 
Parsons, in his Discussioii above mentioned, says ^*that 
she sat two days and three nights upon her stool ready 
dressed, and could never be brought by any of her council 
to go to bed, or to eat or drink, only the Lord- Admiral 
persuaded her to take a little broth. She told him if he 
knew what she had seen in her bed he would not persuade 
as he did. Shaking her head, she said with pitiful voice : 
My Lord, I am tied with a chain of iron about my nedc ; I am 
tied, and the case is altered with meP 

Dr. Lingardf Hist. England, thus relates her conduct 
during her illness : *^ Sir John Harrington, her godson, 
who visited the court about seven months after the death 
of Essex, has described in a private letter the state in 
which he found the Queen. She was altered in her fea- 
tures, and reduced to a skeleton. Her food was nothing 
but manchet bread and succory pottage. Her taste for 
dress was gone : she had not changed her clothes for many 
days. Nothing could please her ; she was the torment 
of the ladies who waited upon her person. She stamped 
with her feet, and swore vehemently at the objects of her 
anger. For her protection she had ordered a sword to be 
placed by her table, which she often took in her hand, 
and thrust with violence into the tapestry of her chamber. 
About a year later he returned to the palace, and was 
admitted to her presence. ^ I found her,^ he says, ' in a most 
melancholy state. She bade the archbishop ask me if I had 
seen Tyrone. I replied with deference, that I had seen him 
with the Lord Deputy. She looked up, with much choler and 
grief in her countenance, and said : ' now it mindeth me 
that you was one who saw this man elsewhere f and here- 
upon she dropped a tear and smote her breast. She held 
in her hand a golden cup, which she often put to her lips : 
but, in truth, her heart seemed too full to need more filling. 
In January she was troubled with a cold, and about the 



ENGLISH SCHISM. 63 

end of the month, removed on a wet, stormy day from 
Westminster to Richmond. Her indisposition increased, 
but with her characteristic obstinacy she refused the 
advice of her physicians. Loss of appetite was accom- 
panied with lowness of spirits, and, to add to her distress, 
it chanced that her intimate friend, the Countess of ^N'ot- 
tingham, died. Elizabeth now spent her days and nights 
in sighs and tears ; or, if she condescended to speak, 

she always chose some unpleasant and irritating subject 

the treason and execution of Essex, or the pretensions of 
Arabella Stuart, or the war in Ireland, or the pardon of 
Tyrone. At last she fell into a stupor, and for some 
hours laid as dead. As soon as she recovered, she order- 
ed the cushions to be brought and spread on the floor. 
On these she seated herself, under a strange notion that 
if she were once to lie down in bed, she should never 
rise again. No prayers of the secretary, or the arch- 
bishop, or the physicians, could induce her to remove or 
take any medicine. For ten days she sat on the cushions, 
generally with her finger in her mouth, and her eyes wide 
open, and fixed on the ground. Her strength rapidly 
decayed : it was evident that she had but a short time 
to liye.''— Vol. V.,_p. 610, 4:tk edit. 

Her death was that of one in despair. After her 
decease her body burst the coJBSn with violence and 
dreadful noise, split the wood and lead, and tore the 
velvet, to the horror and terror of the six ladies who 
were watching it. Her demise took place in the year 
1602, and the 45th of her reign. 

Take her character from another Englishman, the 
illustrious William. Cohhett, M. P., Hist. Refer., far. 348. 
''Bess's life was stained with gross licentiousness, and 
she had many gallants, whilst she called herself a maiden 
Queen. Her life was a life of mischief and misery ; and 
on her death she did all the mischief that remained in 



64 ENGLISHSCHISM. 

her power, by sulkily refusing to name her successor ; 
and thus leaving to the people, whom she had been pil- 
laging and scourging for forty-five years, a probable 
civil war, as a legacy of mischief after her death. His- 
torians have been divided in opinion as to which was 
the worst man that England ever produced, her father 
or Cranmer ; but all mankind must agree that this was 
the worst w^oman that ever existed in England, or in 
the whole world, Jezebel herself not excepted. 



ENGLISH CHURCn, ETC. 65 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ENGLISH CHURCH FOUNDED, NOT ALONE UPON SACRILEGE, 
BUT ALSO UPON PERJURY. 

For fear some persons may plead ignorance of the 
sin of Perjury, I give its definition from Holy Writ, and 
from the Decrees of the Church : 

EusEBius Papa, Epist. 3, ad Episcopos. — Confirming 
the hoary decrees of the Fathers, we again, with the con- 
currence of all the present bishops, decree, as we have 
found long since decreed, that murderers, sorcerers, 
thieves, church robbers, adulterers, incestuous persons, 
witches, convicts, domestics, perjurers, false witnesses, 
persons guilty of rapine, or those who consult fortune- 
tellers or necromancers, and the like, be not by any means 
admitted to prosecute or give evidence, as being infamous 
and abominable, for their voice is accursed. Quoted in 
GratiaUj 3 Quest, v., c. 9. 

Stephanus Papa, Epist. 1, c. 1, Ililario. — We say that 
those persons are infamous who are branded for any 
crime with infamy, that is, all persons that discard the 
prescript of the Christian law, and despise the canons of 
the Church ; also thieves, sacrilegious persons, and all 
persons branded with capital crimes, likewise violators 
of tombs, and willful transgressors of the decrees of the 
apostles and their successors, and of the other fathers, 
and all persons who take up arms against their parents, 
they being branded with infamy throughout the world ; 
in like manner incestuous persons, homicides, perjurers, 
extortioners, sorcerers, poisoners, adulterers, deserters 
from the public wars, and the persons that seek to hold 



66 ENGLISH CHURCH 

places unfit for them, or those that unjustly purloin 
the church property, and those that slander or accuse 
brethren of crimes which they cannot prove, or that ex- 
cite the anger of the great ones against innocent persons, 
and all persons excommunicated, or banished for their 
crimes from the Church, and all persons whom the eccle- 
siastical or the secular laws pronounce infamous. Cer- 
tainly all these cannot, neither bondmen before a regular 
discharge, nor persons performing public penance, nor 
bigamists, nor persons of bodily defect, or who have not 
a sound mind or intellect, or who remain disobedient to 
the decrees of the saints, or who are known to be crazy 
— ought not to be promoted to sacred orders ; neither 
they, nor recent servants, nor suspicious characters, nor 
persons holding not the true faith or good conversation, 
can impeach the higher clergymen. Quoted in Gratian, 6, 
Quest, i., c. 17. 

Impp. Arcadius & HoxoRius, Codicis, Lib. ix. — If any 
man enter into a conspiracy with the soldiers, or private 
people, or with the barbarians, or take or administer an 
oath of conspiracy with regard to the murder of the il- 
lustrious cabinet ministers, or of the Senators (who are 
as if a part of our body) or lastly, if he meditate the 
murder of any person doing military service to us (for 
the laws provide, that the will of the crime, and the effect 
be punished with the same rigour) let him be punished, 
as being guilty of high treason, after all his goods are 
confiscated for the public treasury. And let his children, 
to whom we do in mercy grant their life, be always fol- 
lowed with their paternal infamy, and let them never be 
privileged to make oaths. Quoted in Gratian^ 6, Quest, i., c. 22. 

Whosoever would seek more information on the sub- 
ject, can consult the Justinian Code. Codicis^ Lib. 2, Tit. 
12 ; and the Pandects, D, Lib. 3, Tit. 2. 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 67 

Perjury is a Mortal Sin. 

Prov. xiv. 5. A faithful witness will not lie ; but a 
deceitful witness uttereth a li€. 

WisD. i. 11. The mouth that belieth., killeth the soul. 

Jer. iv, 2. And thou shalt swear : As the Lord liv- 
eth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice : and the 
Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him. 

Jer. vii. 8. Behold you put your trust in lying words, 
which shall not profit you : to steal, to murder, to com- 
mit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to 
go after strange Gods, which you know not. 

Zach. v. 3. And he said to me, This is the curse, that 
goeth forth over the face of the earth : for every thief 
shall be judged as is there written : and every one that 
sweareth in like manner shall be judged by it. I will 
bring it forth, saitli the Lord of hosts, and it shall come 
to the house of the thief, and to the house of him that 
sweareth falsely by my name ; and it shall remain in the 
midst of his house, and shall consume it, with the timber 
thereof, and the stonef^ thereof 

Malac. iii. 5. And it will come to you in judgment, 
and will be a speedy witness against sorcerers and adul- 
terers, 'dnd false swearers, and them, that oppress the hire- 
ling in his wages, the widows, and the fatherless ; and 
oppress the stranger, and have not feared me. 

1 Tim. i. 10. Knowing this, that the law is not made 
for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for 
the ungodly, and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled, 
for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for 
manslayers, for fornicators, for them that defile them- 
selves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars^ for jper- 
jured persons, and whatever other thing is contrary to 
sound doctrine. 

Heb. vi. 16. For men swear by one greater than 



68 EN GLI SH CH UR CH 

themselves: and an oath for confirmation is the end of 
all their controversy. 

The decrees and definitions of our holy Mother the 
Catholic Church against Perjury and Perjurers, are col- 
lected in the Gratian, Gregorian, Sextine, and Clemen- 
tine Decretals ; but here are copied eight : 

Gratian Decretal 22, Quest. 5, c. 1. He that know- 
ingly commits, by his master^s compulsion, perjury, both 
are perjurers, — the master and the servant : the master, 
because he gave the order, the servant, because he loved 
his master more than his own soul. Let him, if he be 
a freeman, do penance on bread and water forty days and 
for the seven years following ; and let him, if he be the 
man's slave, do penance for three quarantines, and the 
regular fast days. Pojpe Pius. 

Chap. 2. Whosoever perjures himself in the hands 
of the Bishop, or upon a consecrated cross, let him per- 
form penance for three years ; but if upon an unconse- 
crated one, let him do penance for one year. And if one 
be compelled and ignorantly perjures himself, and after- 
wards discovers it, let him do penance for three lents. Id, 

Chajp. 3. If any man, from the necessity of saving 
his life, or from any other cause or necessity, commit per- 
jury, let him, because he loved his body more than his 
soul, do penance three quarantines. Bat others require 
three years, one of them on bread and water. Penitm- 
tials of Theodore. 

Cha'p. 4. If any one commit perjury and knowingly 
draw others into perjury, let him do penance on bread 
and water forty days and the seven ensuing years ; and 
let him be never without compunction ; and let others, if 
they co-operate, do the same penance. Pope Gelasiiis, 

Chap. 5. He that urges another to make an oath, 
knowing that he will swear falsehood, surpasses the mur- 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 69 

derer in guilt ; because the murderer kills only the body, 
but he kills a soul ; nay, two souls ; the other man's, 
whom he provokes to the perjury, and his own. You 
know that what you swear is true, and that what he 
swears is false, and yet do you urge him to swear ? Be- 
hold he swears, behold he commits perjury, behold he 
perishes. What have you gained thereby ? Certainly, 
you, that would regale yourself with his death, have also 
perished. St. Augustin^ Serm. \\, de Sanctis. 

Chap. T. If any man is convicted for that he enticed, 
or anyhow suborned others to give false evidence, or to 
commit perjury, let him be during life deprived of com- 
munion, and let them that agree with him to commit the 
perjury, be for ever disqualified to give evidence, and 
remain branded with infamy. Con. Wlatiscon 1, Can. 11, 
an. 582. 

Chajp. 20. Beware, my brethren, of the lie ; for all 
lovers of lies are sons of the devil ; a lie takes place not 
only in false speeches, but also in false doings. The man 
calling himself a Christian is guilty of a lie, if he does 
not the works of Christ ; it is a lie to say that he is a 
bishop or a priest, and to act contrary to that institute. 
St. Ambrose, Serm. in Dominica de Abraham. 

Chap. 21. As often as we speak out of time or 
place, or unsuitably to the hearers, so often will our 
speech be evil and ruinous to the hearers. Therefore let 
us weigh our words, for w^e must render an account on 
the day of judgment, of every idle word.' St. Jerome on 
JSphes. iv. 

Having now seen, from both Testaments, the Edicts 
of the primitive Emperors, and from the Decrees of the 
Church of Christ, the terrific sin of perjury or false swear- 
ing, let us come to see the infernal oaths that are got up 
in England for the purpose of upholding the schismatical 

4* 



*rO ENGLISH CHURCH 

church, or, rather, for the purpose of securing and shel- 
tering the spoliation of the poor and of the religious. 

An Oath of Supremacy, enacted 1 Eliz. c. 1. 

'* I, A.B., utterly testify and declare in my conscience, 
that the Queen^s Highness is the only supreme Gov- 
ernor of this Realm, and of all other her Highness' Do- 
minions and Countries, as well in all Spiritual or Ec- 
clesiastical things, or causes, as Temporal ; and that no 
foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought 
to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence 
or authority. Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within this Eealm; 
and, therefore, I do utterly renounce and forsake all for- 
eign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities, and authorities, 
and do promise, that henceforth I shall bear faith and 
true allegiance to the Queen's Highness, her Heirs and 
lawful Successors ; and to the utmost of my power shall 
assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences, privi- 
leges, and authorities granted, or belonging to the Queen's 
Highness, her Heirs and Successors, or united or annexed 
to the Imperial Crown of this Realm. So help me God, 
and by the contents of this Book." 

The statute provides that all ecclesiastical persons, 
magistrates, temporal officers, and all persons having her 
Majesty's fee or reward, doing homage or taking orders 
or degrees in a university, shall make this oath. And all 
persons who maintain the authority of any foreign prince, 
or do anything for the advancement of his jurisdiction, 
together with his aiders, procurers, and counselors, for- 
feit for the first offence all their goods and chattels, real 
and personal ; or, if they have no goods and chattels to 
the amount of twenty pounds, shall, over and above the 
forfeiture of what goods and chattels they have, suffer 
imprisonment for one year. Besides, all their ecclesias- 



POUJ^DED UPON PERJURY. ?1 

tical promotions are void, as if they be dead. For the 
second offence they incur the pains o^ prcemunire ; and for 
the third offence, those of high treason. 

Had the people really believed that the virgin Queen 
had received her spiritual supremacy from heaven, there 
would be no need of enacting such severe penalties — 
forfeiture of goods and chattels, imprisonment, praemu- 
nire, and the penalties of high treason— to bring them 
into the belief. That they did not, and would not, believe 
it, remains evident from the butchering, bowel-ripping, 
racks, and faggots that were kept during that she-mon- 
ster's reign, and those of her successors, in constant ope- 
ration. The diabolical oath is swallowed even to the 
present time by the Protestant bishops, parsons, collegi- 
ans, civil and military officers, and by the Protestant 
Members of Parliament. 

And what could move the Queen, her bishops, and law- 
makers to introduce the infernal false oaths ? They had a 
motive, which was this : they were altogether excommu- 
nicated infidels, and possessed of the Church-plunder 
which should be sheltered in for their own tribe by oaths 
which no honest man or believer in God could, in con- 
science, subscribe. The fellow that would swear in the 
court to any fact, without showing some proof, moral or 
physical, for his affirmation, would be instantly hooted 
as a perjurer, and perhaps put on his trial; all that is 
both just and proper. St. Paul, Gal. i. 20, saith : Now 
the things which I write to you^ hehold hefore God 1 lie not. 
When man makes an oath, he calls God, who knows the 
secrets of his heart, who is everywhere present, to wit- 
ness the truth of his allegation. By a solemn oalh are 
all disputes settled. If there be no reliance had upon the 
Christian's oath, all things are lost; the judge and iho- 
juror know not how to act; neither life nor property is 
secure; society must go into pieces. 



12 ENGLISH CHURCH 

But the swearers to the King or Queen's spiritual 
supremacy can give no proof from Scriptures or Sacred 
Tradition that Christ Jesus hath appointed him or her as 
the spiritual head of any church or congregation, whilst 
the clearest evidence is extant for the Pope's spiritual 
headship. What, then, is the aforesaid Oath of Suprem- 
acy, but manifest blasphemy and perjury? While the 
Protestant rulers and legislators make false and blas- 
phemous oaths their step-ladders to worldly dignity, 
veneration for oaths cannot be looked for in the people. 
Why should not the vengeance of heaven fall upon the 
land in which no Protestant can obtain or retain a post, 
pension, or seat in the Cabinet, if his lips be not seasoned 
and purified by perjury ? Whilst all other perjurers are 
branded with infamy, fined, confined, and pointed out by 
the finger of scorn, shall the Protestant kings, bishops, 
parsons, and office-holders assume license, in general, to 
make mockery of the law of God, to arrive at the loaves 
and fishes, to devour and digest them with the sauce 
of perjury, and then to stalk abroad without stain or 
stigma. 

The Coronation Oath — 1 W. ^ Mary, sess. 1, c. 6. 

Archbishop, or Bishop, says to the King or Queen, 
^* Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the 
laws of God, the true Protestant profession of the gospel, 
and the Protestant reformed religion established by law ? 
And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this 
realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all 
such rights and privileges as by law do, or shall apper- 
tain unto them or any of them ?'' 

King or Queen. *' All this I promise to do." 

Every King and Queen of England, ever since the 
days of W. and Mary to the present time, had to make that 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. ^3 

oath to defend, to the utmost of his or her power, the Pro- 
testant reformed religion by law established. Even the 
reigning Queen had to swear to what neither she, nor any- 
other person, has any possibility to know. What man 
could say, with certainty, what the Protestant reformed 
religion in England is ? — a reed that bends with every 
breeze, that is daily reformed and re-reformed ; that holds 
not the same fashion or principle a week in any two vil- 
lages. If they have any fixed religious notions, would 
they daily split, and flee from one sect to another, and 
even '' go to Rome V^ And what is meant by the Pro- 
testant reformed religion by law established ? Perhaps 
the Thirty-nine Articles creed, or the Presbyterian creed, 
or the Wesleyan creed, or the Swedenborgian creed, or the 
Southcottian creed, or the aggregate of the hundreds of 
jarring and contradictory creeds that go under the name of 
the Protestant reformed religion in England and Scotland. 
Protestancy is not a term expressive of any system 
of faith whatever, but a term devoid of fixed or settled 
meaning, that signifies any, or every thing, but Catho- 
licity ; a term that expresses not faith, but the absence 
of faith ; a term that creates in the mind no idea of any 
fixed religion, or positive principle whatever, but the 
mere negation or abjuration of the Catholic religion. 
Certainly, the Socinian, Arian, Jew, Deist, or even the 
Atheist, may also be called Protestants, whereas every 
one of them protests against the Catholic religion. ^' By 
the Protestant faith," says Chillingworth, '' I understand 
not the doctrine of Luther, or Calvin, or Melancthon, or 
the Confession of Augusta, or Geneva, or the Catechism 
of Heidelberg, or the Articles of the English church, nor 
all the Protestant confessions taken together, but that in 
which all agree, and which they ail unanimously adopt 
as their perfect rule of faith and action — the Bible ; and 
the Bible only is the religion of the Protestants." 



74 ENGLISH CHURCH 

Really, Chillingworth's definition of Protestancy is 
puzzling, even to the grey-headed divines who spend their 
whole life over the Bible; but much more so to the young 
Queen, to whom balls, levees, and the perplexing care for 
all parts of her extensive dominions, leave but little leis- 
ure to study and examine the deep dogmas of religion. 
Now, suppose it be disputed whether Episcopacy be con- 
sistent with the Bible. The Scottish Covenanters, the 
Irish Presbyterians, and the English Dissenters, find no 
warrant for it in the word of God ; but the Anglical Pro- 
testants do. Or, if infant baptism or the sacraments be 
contested, the Baptists find not the former, the Quaker 
discover not the latter in the Bible. The Anglicans do. 
How is it possible for the young Queen to ascertain, 
amidst the endless conflicts of Sectarians, the Protestant 
reformed religion established by law ; and as the thing 
is impossible, why make her swear to defend it to the ut- 
most of her power ? Since sacred science, mature judg- 
ment, freedom from worldly cares, the dissipation and al. 
lurements of high life, are essential for deep religious re- 
search, for tracing back through the annals, decrees, and 
definitions of the primitive church, the religion that was 
foretold by the prophets, revealed by Christ, preached by 
the apostles and handed down, is it not terrific impiety 
to make the Queen, as she ascends the throne, to swear 
on the holy gospels to defend to the utmost of her power 
the true religion, which she cannot possibly know nor un- 
derstand ? 

The fault has not its origin in these latter days, but 
is deep-rooted in the gloomy days of England, when 
Church-plundering, King-killing-, and Puritanical fanati- 
cism was prevalent. But as the thick clouds have, in a 
great measure, disappeared; as several inroads are being 
made by the King and law-makers upon the Church 
established by law ; George IV. grants the Church-rate 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 75 

Bill, the Irish Church Temporalities Bill, by which ten 
Bishopricks in Ireland, and all benefices in which Divine 
service had not been performed for the three preceding 
years, are abolished. He also signed a bill in regard to 
the Bishoprick of Durham, and the appropriation of some 
lands to build and endow a University : the clause not- 
withstanding, "And will you preserve unto the bishops 
and clergy of this Realm, and to the churches committed 
to their charge, all the rights and privileges, as by law 
do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them ?" Why 
not, then, let go with the rest, the absurd and false Coro- 
nation Oath ? What earthly object is obtained by making 
the King or Queen perjure themselves ? Now, come to 
review another horrible oath which was enacted in the 
reign of Charles IL, and which the King and Queen have 
to subscribe also, at their coronation: 

An Oath, enacted, 30 C. IL, Stat. 2. 

" I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence 
of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do believe 
that in the sacrament of the Lord's supper there is not 
any transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body 
and blood of Christ, at, or after the consecration thereof 
by any person whatever; and that the invocation or ador- 
ation of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, and the 
Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church 
of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do 
solemnly, and in the presence of God, profess, testify, 
and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every 
part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words 
read unto me, as they are commonly understood by Eng- 
lish Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or 
mental reservation whatsoever, and without any dispen- 
sation already granted me for the purpose, by the Pope, 
or any other authority, or person whatsoever, or without 



76 ENGLISH CHURCH 

hope of any such dispensation from any person or author- 
ity whatsoever, or without thinking that I am, or can be 
acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declar- 
ation, or any^part thereof, although tlie Pope or any other 
person or persons, or power vrhatsoever, should dispense 
with or annul the same, or declare that it was null and 
void from the beginning." 

The statute moreover provides that no member of 
either house of Parliament shall take his seat there dur- 
ing a debate, or vote personally or by proxy, until he, 
after having first taken the Oath of Allegiance and 
Supremacy, audibly recite and subscribe the above decla- 
ration. Queen Victoria had, according to the newspa- 
pers of the day, to make that oath, to swear upon the 
holy gospels her disbelief in the -Real Presence ; *' and 
that the invocations of the Saints, and the Sacrifice of 
the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, 
are superstitious and idolatrous." 

What a deadly wound she then inflicted on her own 
illustrious Catholic relatives in Germany, her Catholic 
subjects. Catholic allies, Catholic members of Parliament, 
upon all England who were Catholics for nine hundred 
years, upon the millions who are Catholic still ; upon all 
Ireland and the Canadas, who are almost all Catholics ; 
upon the two millions of Catholics in the United States 
of North America ; upon twenty-seven millions Catholics 
in South America ; upon the whole population of the 
European Continent, who are all Catholics, with the 
exception of about one-half of Holland, Prussia and 
Sweden, who are split into innumerable sects ; upon 
several numerous churches of Catholics in the East and 
West Indies, in the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans ; upon the Catholics of Australia and Yandieman's 
Land ! 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 77 

Upon the greatest saints, civilians, and conquerers — 
SS. Basil, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Gregories, Augustin, 
Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary, Anselm, Bishop Fisher, Thomas 
of England, and Patrick of Ireland. 

Upon Sir Thomas Moore, Constantino, Alfred, Edward 
the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Charlemagne, St. 
Louis ; and, in short, upon all Christendom down from 
the apostolic age until the Reformation, who were all, 
without any one exception. Catholics, believing most 
firmly in the Real Presence ; and lastly, upon the seven- 
tenths of all Christians now-a-days in the whole world, 
who are Catholics, and firm believers in the Real Pre- 
sence. Was it not extremely wicked for the Protestant 
Bishops of Canterbury and London, when they crowned 
the youthful, gracious Queen, to make her swear on the 
holy gospels that the whole world, .with the said few ex- 
ceptions, are superstitious and idolatrous ! 

See the holy Council of Trent, in sessions during the 
pontificate of three successive Popes — Paul III., Julius 
III., and Pius IV.— from the year 1545 to 1564 ; Cardi- 
nals, Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots, from all Christ- 
ian countries, for eighteen long years poring over the holy 
Bible, Fathers, and Councils of antiquity, with the only 
view of defining and transmitting to posterity the genuine 
seed originally scattered by the Divine Husbandman in 
the field, taught by the apostles and proclaimed by the 
martyrs and confessors. ' Let the reader, after he has 
perused and digested the clear and strong proofs left us 
by that holy Synod for Transubstantiationand Invocation 
of the Saints, turn his eyes over upon the young Queen 
of England swearing by the order, and in the presence 
of the two Protestant Bishops, that she knows for certain, 
and better than all the Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops in 
the whole Catholic world, that the dogmas of the Real 
Presence and Invocation of the Saints are superstitious 
and idolatrous. 



if8 ENGLISH CHURCH 

Now come to compare what she is made to swear at 
her coronation, with the Christian doctrine which she had 
to learn previous to her confirmation. 

'^ The Book of Common Prayer says, in the Catechism 
mi the Lor(Vs Supper : 

'' Quest. Wiiy was the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per ordained ? 

^' Answ. For the continual remembrance of the sacri- 
fice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we 
receive thereby. 

" Quest. What is the outward part or sign of the 
Lord's Supper ? 

'^ Answ. Bread and Wine, which the Lord hath com- 
manded to be received. 

'' Quest. What is the inward part or thing signified ? 

" Answ. The Body and Blood of Christ, which are 
verily indeed taken and received by the faithful in the 
Lord's Supper.'' 

Really it is astonishing that that Protestant bishop 
who had taught her, previous to her confirmation, *'that 
the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken 
and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper," would 
again have the foll}^ and wickedness to make her solemnly 
swear at her coronation that the same doctrine is super- 
stitious and idolatrous. 

Not alone the kings and queens, but likewise the 
Protestant bishops, Protestant members of Parliament, 
and all Protestant office-holders, who had learned in the 
catechism and house of worship, '^ that the Body and Blood 
of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the 
faithful in the Lord's Supper," have to make a solemn oath 
at the door of every post and office that the same sworn 
tenet is false and idolatrous; that there is no truth whatever 
in the Protestant doctrine, which had all along been held 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. T9 

and professed ! What is the inference, but that by hold- 
ing a doctrine which they never believed, they were hypo- 
crites; or by abjuring a doctrine which they believe to 
be the doctrine of Christ, they are undisguised perjurers. 
Both hypocrisy and perjury are sins odious to God and 
man. 

Parliamentary Test, e7i<2c^e<i, W. 1, and Mary, Sess. 1, c. 1. 

'* I, A. B. do sincerely promise and swear, that I will 
be faithful and bear true allegiance to their Majesties king 
William and queen Mary. So help me God.'' 

'' I, A. B. do swear that I do from my heart abhor, 
detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damna- 
ble doctrine and position, that princes excommunicated 
or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of 
Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, 
or any other whatsoever. And I do declare, that no 
foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, 
or ought to have, any power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre- 
eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within 
this realm. So help me God." 

Now, the first impression made upon the reader of the 
oath is this, that the goodly swearers hold in detestation 
and abhorrence that position, that princes excommunicated 
or deprived by the Pope or any authority of the See of 
Rome, may be deposed by their subjects or any other 
whatsoever ; but that there is neither impiety nor heresy 
in the position that princes may be deposed, deprived or 
murdered by Protestants : that the goodly swearers hold 
impiety, heresy, the deposition and beheading of princes 
in holy abhorrence. But the very principle w^hich they 
abjure, is taught in the schools and reduced into practice 
by themselves, namely, that tj^rants or bad kings may 
be deposed and even beheaded by their subjects. 

Second : '^ And I do declare, that no foreign prince. 



80 ENGLISH CHURCH 

person, prelate, state or potentate, hath, or ought to have, 
any power, jurisdiction, superiority, pre-eminence, or au- 
thority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm." 
The fad and right are abjured ; whilst all persons know 
that both the one and the other exist and are acted upon. 
The Prince of Orange himself, who was but a foreigner, 
exercised the right — had from the very moment of his 
landing in England power, superiority, and pre-eminence, 
spiritual and temporal. As the Royal Family are bylaw 
disallowed to marry their subjects, they must seek alliance 
abroad : George III., George lY., Duke of Kent, the prin- 
cess Charlotte, and Queen Victoria, brought in foreign 
princes, who exercised both temporal and spiritual power 
and pre-eminence. Is it not, therefore, evident perjury to 
abjure facts that exist, and rights that are sanctioned by 
the laws ? 

What could have been king William's motive for pro- 
viding this oath the very first year of his reign ? His 
motive was, without doubt, to flatter John Bull with high 
notions of his own independence of all foreign powers. 
He gulled John Bull. He created for him a National 
Debt, Banks, and Funds — things that were never before 
known in England ; he borrowed on public credit, the 
fourth year of his reign, one million, and the fifth year, 
two different sums — one million, and one million and a 
half. Which debt continues growing ever since on the 
shoulders of John Bull. If individuals proclaim and 
swear that the reigning family, as being foreigners, 
have not, and ought not, to have any power or superiority 
in England, would they not be immediately prosecuted 
for high treason ? Is not the same treasonable oath put 
into the people's mouth by the laws ? Is a denial of the 
right and fact, criminal in the mouth of the people, inno- 
cent in the mouth of the great ones I 



POUNDED UPON PERJURY. 81 

Dissenters^ Oath, enacted 9 Geor. IV., c. It. 

" I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence 
of God, profess, testify, and declare, upon the true faith 
of a Christian, that I will never exercise any power, au- 
thority, or influence which I may possess, by virtue of 
the office of .... to injure or weaken the Protestant 
Church as it is by law established in England, or to dis- 
turb the said Church, or the bishops and clergy of the 
said Church, in the possession of any rights or privileges 
to which such Church, or the said bishops and clergy are, 
or may be by law entitled." 

On the emancipation of the Dissenters in the j^ear 
1828, all the civil offices hitherto closed against them 
are now thrown open, on condition of subscribing the 
above oath — on condition that they will bind themselves, 
upon the solemnity of an oath, *^ not to injure or weaken 
the Protestant Church as it is by law established in Eng- 
land, or disturb the said Church, or the bishops and clergy 
of the said Church, in the possession of any rights or 
privileges to which such Church or the said bishops or 
clergy are, or may be by law entitled." 

Mark, that the tense is the present and indicative^ not 
the future or potential — as it is by law, not as it will, or 
may be hereafter by law established. Therefore, if the 
oath is to be construed, as all Christian oaths and decla- 
rations should be, in the literal sense and without equivo- 
cation, duplicity, or mental reservation whatever, the 
Dissenters are bound not to injure or weaken the Protest- 
ant Church, as it is at the time of taking the oath, not as 
it will or may at any future period, be by law established 
hi England. But the following provision in the oath is 
stronger and more general than the former; it takes in 
both the present and the future time, binds them to hold 
peace and friendship towards the established Cluirch and 



82 ENGLISH CHURCH 

established bishops and clergy now and for ever. '^ That 
they will not disturb the said Church, or the bishops and 
clergy of the said Church in the possession of any rights 
or privileges to which such Church or the said bishops 
and clergy are or may he by law entitled." The evident 
tenor of the oath goes to defend whatever rights and 
privileges the Protestant Church and clergy had at the 
time of taking the oath, together with whatever rights 
and privileges they will at any future period possess. 
Therefore the Dissenters, notwithstanding their implacable 
hatred towards the Establishment, are bound by their sol- 
emn oath to keep the peace towards it now and for ever. 
This is a hard pill to be swallowed ! Does not their separa- 
tion and dissent — does not every meeting-house they erect, 
and every sermon which they preach, directly tend to 
weaken and disturb the Church and clergy established by 
law ? The mighty struggle which they make, and the 
enormous expense which they incur for the erection of sepa- 
rate houses of worship, and for the support of their dis- 
senting ministers, with their wives and families, is the most 
convincing proof that they look upon the Established 
Church as unchristian, and upon the Protestant bishops 
and ministers as false teachers, thieves, and robbers, that 
are come near the end of the world to disperse and destroy. 
The dissenters make that oath, whilst it is generally 
allowed that neither peace nor happiness will reign 
in the British Islands until the Established Church will 
be stripped naked of all its plunder, to be distributed 
on charitable purposes. *'The most heart-rending curse 
which Providence has permitted to fall upon the land 
occupier in Ireland is the Church Establishment ; this, 
like the scorpion's tail, is armed at all points, and scourges 
the peasant, through tithes and church-rates^ till it draws his 
very hlood. This establishment not only strips him of 
food and raiment, but it also insults him by the monstrous 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 83 

injustice of obliging him to give his sweat — whilst he him- 
self is left to pray in the open air — to feed the Parson 
and his rapacious family and followers, who go about, not 
doing good, but to vilify and calumniate the religion which 
this peasant reveres ; it compels him to purchase bread 
and wine, and stoves and music, for the Church which he 
deems profane ; to pay the glazier and the sexton, the 
grave-digger, and divide his clothes between them, 
and to cast lots, like the Deicide Jews, upon his cloak. 
Whilst these oppressions are suffered to continue, how 
can the men who are made to the image and likeness of 
God, and for whose use the earth yields all its produce, 
how can they be fed or in any way provided for ? They 
must either be sacrificed in hecatombs to the furious pas- 
sions which brood over this country, or these passions 
must be restrained, and the laws altered which gave 
them birth." — Bishop Doyle. 

Would not the sworn defender of the conspiracy be 
punished as an ^accomplice ; would not the magistrate, 
who swears not to disturb the violators of the laws, be 
soon dismissed ; would not the advocate, who after having 
taken the client's fee, swears not to disturb or weaken the 
opponent's case, be disgraced and expelled from the bar ? 
How then can the Dissenters, who have sworn not to in- 
jure, disturb, or weaken the Protestant Church of Eng- 
land, free themselves from the guilt of perjury, if they 
defend, directly or indirectly, their own religious system ? 
There is a moral principle — silence gives consent — founded 
upon the saying of Ihe Apostle, Rom. i. 32, they who do 
such things are worthy of death ; and not only they, but 
the consenters also. The Dissenters are certainly by the 
oath bound down to their best behavior, to observe pro- 
found silence on the manifold errors and church-plunder- 
ing of the established clergy. 



84 ENGLISH CHURCH 

The Catholic Oath of Allegiance, enacted^ 10 Gcor. IV.^ 
c. 10, Sec. 2, An. 1829. 

*' I, A. B., do sincerelj promise and swear that I will 
be faithful and bear true allegiance to his Majesty King 
George IV., and wdll defend him to the utmost of my 
power against all conspiracies and attempts whatever 
which shall be made against his person, crown, or dig- 
nity ; and I will do my utmost endeavor to disclose and 
make known to his Majesty, his heirs, and successors, all 
treasons and conspiracies which may be formed against 
him or them : And I do faithfully promise to maintain, 
support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the suc- 
cession of the Crown, which succession, by an Act entitled, 
* An Act for the farther limitation of the Crown, and the 
better securing the rights and liberties of the subject,' is, 
and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of 
Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants : 
hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or 
allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending 
a right to the Crown of these realms : And I do further 
declare that it is not an article of my faith, and that I do 
renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that Princes ex- 
communicated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority 
of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their 
subjects, or by any person whatsoever: And I do declare, 
that I da not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any 
other foreign Prince, Prelate, Person, State, or Potentate, 
hath, or ought to have, any temporal or civil jurisdiction, 
power, superiority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, 
within this realm. I do swear that I will defend to the 
utmost of my power the settlement of property within 
this realm as established by the law^s ; and I do hereby 
disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to 
subvert the present Church Establishment, as settled by the 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 85 

law within this realm ; and I do solemnly swear that I will 
never exercise any privilege to which I am, or may become 
entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or 
Protestant government in this kingdom; and I do solemnly, 
in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do 
make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain 
and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, without any 
evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatever." 

This oath came in company with the Emancipation 
Bill, as a substitute for all the preceding oaths of allegi- 
ance. What could be the motives for requiring them to 
make declarations that are contrary to the truth and 
facts ? Would they become more faithful subjects, or 
better citizens, by being involved in perjury ? The oath 
consists of five clauses. The first binds the swearers to 
maintain the succession of the crown in the heirs of the 
Princess Sophia, being Protestants : the second, to defend 
the settlement of property as by law established in Eng- 
land ; the third, to disavow, disclaim, and abjure any in- 
tention to subvert the law-church establishment in Eng- 
land, and never to exercise any privilege, which they may 
have, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion, or Pro- 
testant .government of England ; the fourth, to declare 
their belief that the Pope, or any foreign prince, prelate, 
person, state, or potentate, hath not, nor ought to have 
any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or 
pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within the realm of 
England ; and the fifth clause binds them to declare, pro- 
fess, and solemnly to testify, that they make the said oath, 
and every part thereof, in the plain an(>ordinary sense of 
the words of the said oath, without any evasion, equivo- 
cation, or mental reservation whatever. Now let us con- 
sider these five clauses, one by one. The first clause says: 

" And I faithfully promise to maintain, support, and 

5 



86 ENGLISH CHURCH 

defend, to the utmost of my power, the succession of the 
crown, which succession is, and stands limited to the 
Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of 
her body, being ProtestantsP 

As no allusion to the clause is made in any of the 
oaths required of the Protestants and Dissenters, it is 
unaccountable why it is foisted into the Catholics' oath. 
To be free from the gnilt of perjury, man must not swear 
rashly, or without certainty of the truth and justice of 
his affirmation. But what evidence or certainty has any 
Catholic in the British Islands in regard to the Princess 
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, whether she was a Lu- 
theran, Calvinist, Socinian, Presbyterian, or a Protestant 
of any sort; or whether such a person ever existed; or 
whether the reigning Queen of England is an heir of her 
body — a subject perhaps not three out of fifty English or 
Irish Catholics know. If that be the case, they swear to an 
uncertainty, and therefore commit the crime of perjury. 

*' The succession of the crown must be maintained in 
the heirs of her body, being ProtestantsJ^ 

Not only do they swear that they know that the 
reigning family are lineal descendants of Sophia, Elect* 
ress of Hanover, which they have no means or possibility 
of knowing, but to maintain the succession of the crown 
in the heirs of that unknown, perhaps never existing 
female, they being Protestants; and as Protestancy is a 
vague and indefinite thing, they swear to three uncertain- 
ties — that such a female as the Electress of Hanover 
really existed, that Queen Victoria is an heir of her body, 
and that all the vagaries of Protestantcy must be main- 
tained. If this b^not rash and false swearing, I know 
not what to make of it. 

"The succession of the crown must be maintained in 
the heirs of her body, being FrottstamtsP Therefore they 



J-OUNDED UPON PERJtTEY. 8t 

are not to be maintained, if they cease to be Protestants. 
That this was the scope and intention of the framers of 
the oath, is rendered clearer in the other clause—' I do 
hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure, any inten- 
tion to subvert the present Church Establishment, as by 
law settled within this realm. And I do solemnly swear 
that I will never exercise any privilege, to which I am, 
or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protest- 
ant religion, or Protestant government in this kingdom." 
That It was their aim and intention to bind down the 
people to maintain the rulers and clergy of England, as 
long as they remain Protestants, but no longer, is ren- 
dered still clearer by the statute, 1 W. and Marv, Sess 2 
c. 2, sect. 9. v> ■ , 

"And whereaa, it hath been found by experience, 
that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this 
Protestant Kingdom, to be governed by a Popish Prince 
or by any King or Queen marrying a Papist, the Lords 
spiritual and temporal, and Commons, do further pray that 
It may be enacted : That all and every person, or persons 
that is, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion 
with the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the 
Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be exclu- 
ded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy 
the crown or government of this realm, and Ireland and 
the dommions thereunto belonging, or any part of the 
same, or to have, or to exercise any Regal power, autho- 
rity or jurisdiction within the same. And in all and every 
such case or cases, the people of these realms shall le, and are 
hereby absolved of their allegiance. And the said Crown and 
government shall from time to time descend to, and be en- 
joyed by such person or persons, being Protestants, as should 
have inherited or enjoyed the same, in case such person 
or persons so reconciled, holding communion, or profess- 
ing, or marrying as aforesaid, were naturally dead " 



88 ENGLISH CHURCH 

Is it not the evident tendency of the statute of W, 
and Mary, to preserve the church and government, as 
long as they remain Protestants, and to destroy them the 
moment they become Catholics ? does not the oath also 
aim at binding the Catholics to defend them to the ut- 
most of their power, whilst they continue Protestants, 
and to release them, ijpso facto, from all allegiance to the 
Protestant clergy, and Protestant government, if they 
become Catholics, or marry Catholics ? Since that, and 
nothing else, was the evident and expressed intention of 
the framers of the oath, the Catholics are bound upon 
oath to defend to the utmost of their power all the hideous 
heresies and schism of the Protestant Church ; and are, 
therefore, involved in all the censures provided in the 
sacred Canons against heretics and their aiders and de- 
fenders. 

Bulla — Ccena Domini, suh Clement XIII. *' We excom- 
municate and anathematize, on the part of Almighty God 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; also 
with the authority of the blessed Apostles, Peter and 
Paul, and with our own, all Hussites, whatsoever, Wic- 
liffites, Lutherans, Zuinglians, Calvinists, Hugonites, 
Anabaptists, Trinitarians, whatsoever, as being apostates 
from the Christian faith, and all the several other heretics 
whatever, under whatever name they go, and to whatever 
Sect they belong." 

Con. Lateran, sub Innocent III. *' We decree that all 
the believers in them, harbourers, defenders, and abetters 
of heretics, be under an excommunication, firmly ordain- 
ing, that after any of them be branded with an excom- 
munication, if he disdains to make satisfaction within a 
year, he be, ijpso jure, infamous." 

How then can the English swearers pretend to free 
themselves from the spiritual censures — excommunica- 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 89 

tion, interdict, suspension decreed against heresies, and 
the abettors thereof? How can they call themselves 
members of the Body of Christ, whereas they are, ipso 
facto, cut off? 

The Catholic religion is opposite to the Protestant, as 
lightas to darkness. When the Catholic truth prevails, 
the Protestant heresies disappear; and when Protestancy 
is left undisturbed, the Catholic religion withers and de- 
cays. Every sound sermon and book that comes forth in 
defence of the Catholic Church, tend to weaken and disr 
turb the Protestant Establishment. Which high crime 
the English and Irish Catholics could not at all bring 
themselves to commit, provided they construe their oath 
in the plain and literal sense, without any mental reserva- 
tion or equivocation. Perhaps they could discharge their 
duty to b od and man by maintaining the balance of power 
between the contending churches — by preaching now the 
Council of Trent and Papal Supremacy, and then the 39 
Articles, and the headship of Queen Victoria; to-day the 
seven Catholic Sacraments, and to-morrow the Protestant 
three ; or it may be that they could hold neutrality. This 
is impossible also, for it is written: He that is not with me is 
against me ; and he that collects not with me, scatters. There- 
fore by not defending the faith and doctrine of Christ, 
they are enemies of Christ; and by not collecting with 
arguments, in season and out of season, the straying 
sheep into the fold, they scatter and disperse those sheep 
that are already collected. 

The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep ; he bore 
our sins on his body upon the tree; by his stripes we are 
healed and converted to the shepherd and bishop of our 
souls; he went in quest of the lost sheep, and, when he found 
it, laid it upon his shoulders and carried it home rejoicing. 

Had the apostles and primitive martyrs pledged them- 
selves not to disturb or weaken the heresies and idolatry 



90 ENGLISH CHURCH 

of the early ages ; had Pope Gregory, Austin, and Patrick, 
compromised with the errors of the ancient Saxons and 
Irish, not a ray of the Christian religion would have 
reached our times. And when they brought the apostles 
and set them before the council. And the high priest 
asked them saying : Commanding we command you, that 
you should not teach in his name ; and behold you have 
filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you have a mind 
to bring the blood of this man upon us. But St. Peter 
and the apostles answering, said : We ought to obey God 
rather than men. The English Catholics, if equally cir- 
cumstanced, would obey men rather than God, would 
pledge themselves not to fill London at all with the Cath- 
olic truth. 

Let me insert the decree of Pojpe Inno. III. '' The man 
certainly incurs the guilt of the evil doer who neglects 
to correct him when he can : for not only the evil dcerSj but 
they also who consent to them, are worthy of death. And he 
that removes the ills of the afflicted, makes rich sacrifices 
to God. And to neglect to disturb, when he can, the 
perverse, is to foster them. The man that neglects to 
oppose the notorious sinners, cannot free himself from the 
guilt of secret consent ; and the man that condemns the 
sinners proves his hatred of the sin. He that spares not 
the delinquents leaves himself no room to trangress. 
And the first step in innocence is to hate the crimes. 
And he that consents to the depravity, throws the door 
wide open to the sinners. And it avails not a man to be 
guiltless in his own actions, when he is to be punished 
for the sins of others." Quoted in Gratian, Dist. 86, c. 3. 

And we learn in the Catechism that we become ac- 
cessory by nine ways to the sins of others — ^by counsel, 
by command, by consent, b}^ provocation, b}^ praise or 
flattery, by concealment, by partaking, by silence, by de- 
fence of the ill done. 



FOUNDED UPON PERJURY. 9l 

Farther, as evil communication corrupts good man- 
ners ; and as with the holy thou shalt be holy ; and with 
the innocent man thou shalt be innocent ; and with the 
perverse thou shalt be perverted, each person is bound, 
even from self-interest, to disturb and weaken with all 
moral means, reasoning, and argument, and suasion, the 
heresies, lest the infection spread and prostrate his own 
family. The heathens themselves discovered through the 
light of nature that the rising generation are prone to 
follow bad example, whilst history declares that no in- 
fection spreads more rapidly, or makes a greater havoc 
than heresy. The several oaths heretofore seen, which 
are contrary to the truth, and which are therefore per- 
jury, are but Satan^s net for catching the' souls, not alone 
of the Protestants but also of the Catholics. What 
earthly gain can be expected by perpetuating them ? 
Can it be supposed that the Royal Family, or the nobles, 
or the people, will become better rulers or more faithful 
subjects by perjuring themselves, by forfeiting their title 
to the kingdom of God ? 

My essay on the church by law established in England 
concludes in the words of that great and good man, 
William Cchhett, M, P.: '' The event called the Reform- 
ation, had impoverished and degraded the main body 
of the people of England and Ireland. In paragraph 4, I 
told you that a fair and honest inquiry would teach us, 
that the word Reformation had in this case been misap- 
plied ; that there was a change, but a change greatly 
for the worse ; that the thing, called the Reformation, 
was engendered in .beastly lust, brought forth in hypoc- 
risy and perfidy, and cherished and fed by plunder, de- 
vastation, and by rivers of innocent English and Irish 
blood ; and that, as to its remote consequences, they are, 
some of them, now before us, in that misery, that beg- 
gary, that nakedness, that hunger, that everlasting 



92 ENGLISH CHURCH, ETC. 

wrangling and spite, which now stare iis in the face, and 
stun our ears at every turn, and which the * Reforma- 
tion ' has given us in exchange for the ease, and happi- 
ness, and harmony, and Christian charity, enjoyed so 
abundantly, and for so many ages, by our Catholic fore- 
fathers." — Hist. Reform. j^ par. 449. 



HISTORY OF, ETC. 93 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY IN AMERICA. 

Bisho'p Ho'p'kinSj Primitive Church, p. 354 ; Burlington, 
Vermont, An. 1835, saith : " Previous to the Revolution, 
the Colonies were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the 
Bishop of London, and whatever construction was then 
put upon the office of a bishop, and the promise of obedi- 
ence to him, in this country, continues to be the law of 
our Church to this day ; those points alone excepted, in 
which our Church has thought fit to alter by some new 
provision. And in all the Federal Courts, the whole 
science of jurisprudence is still interpreted according to 
the English rule, and their law books are read as author- 
ity. Marvelous it is, surely, that the laws of the statute 
should keep their ancient connection with so much con- 
stancy, while yet the principles of the Church must be 
cut loose from all their ties, and be sent adrift to discover 
new interpretations and definitions of old terms, as if the 
phrases bishops, presbyters, and ordination vows had 
suddenly lost all meaning, and ceased to signify at the 
Revolution what they always signified before. 

" By the liberality of the British Government, after 
the peace was declared, an act of Parliament was passed 
authorizing the consecration of three bishops for the 
Church in this country. This w^as done upon the express 
assurance given by our Clergy in Convention, that the 
principles of the Church of England should be faithfully 
retained. A few extracts from the address of the Conven- 
tion of n 85, to the English Prelates, will prove this clearly: 

5* 



94 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

'' When it pleased the supreme Ruler of the universe, 
that this part of the British Empire," says that address, 
^^ should be free and independent, it became the most im- 
portant concern of the members of our communion to 
provide for its continuancCo" 

^^ The petition which we offer to your Venerable Body is 
• . . . that you will be pleased to confer the Episcopal 
character on such persons as shall be recommended by this 
Church in the several States here represented. 

*' The Archbishops of Canterbury were not prevented, 
even by the weighty concerns of their high station, from 
attending to the interests of this distant branch of the 
Church under their care. The Bishops of London were our 
diocesans : and the uninterrupted, although voluntary sulmis- 
sion of our congregations will remain a perpetual proof of 
their mild and paternal government. 

*^ And in the answer returned by the English prelates to 
the address, we find a further evidence, in the fear enter- 
tained that the principles of the Church might be changed 
from the primitive and acknowledged standards. For, 
after stating their willingness to comply with the request, 
they (the English Bishops) say, We are disposed to make 
every allowance, which candor can suggest, for the dif- 
ficulties of your situation, but at the same time we cannot 
help being afraid that in the proceedings of your Conven- 
tion, some alterations may have been adopted or intended, 
which these difficulties do not seem to justify. These 
alterations are not mentioned in your Address, and as our know- 
ledge of them is no more than what has reached us through 
private and less certain channels, it is just both to you 

and to ourselves that we wait for an explanation 

We cannot but be extremely cautious, lest we should be the 
instruments of establishing an ecclesiastical system which 
will be called a branch of the Church of England, but after- 
wards may possibly appear to have essentially departed 
from it either in doctrine or in discipline. 



INAMERICA. 95 

" In the next Conventional Address of the American 
Church there was an assurance of there being no intention 
of departing from the constituent principles of the Church of 
England ; and in the preamble of the act of that Conven- 
tion there is a declaration of their steadfast resolution to main- 
tain the same essential articles of faith and discipline with 
the Church of England. 

^* Now all this took place previous to the consecration 
of the first American Bishops. . . . Bishop Seabury was 
consecrated by the non-juring bishops of Scotland in the 
year 1784, and Bishops White, Provost, and Madison, 
under favor of an Act of Parliament^ were consecrated by 
the Archbishops and Bishops of England, in 1787 ; the 
first nearly five years, and the other three more than two 
years and a half before the formation of the present Con- 
stitution and Canons of our Church was commenced." 

Now we see the origin and progress of the Episcopal 
church in these United States : the picture is drawn by 
one of its own prelates, and must be therefore true. They 
profess to follow little Edward's church, but they thought 
fit, however, to alter it by some new provisions ; it is 
marvelous, however, that the laws of the statutes should 
keep with constancy their connection while the principles 
of the church were cut loose from their ancient ties and 
sent adrift for new discoveries at the Revolution. The 
reason is evident : because they set more value upon 
worldly matters than upon Edward's church. What and 
where were these ties from which the principles of the 
Protestant church were cut loose and sent adrift in quest 
of new discoveries ? And what were the principles of 
the Church of England ? Sacrilege and perjury. How- 
ever, the English bishops, in their answer to the Ameri- 
can address, said they were afraid that the principles of 
the Church of England would be changed ; that altera- 



96 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

tions were made, or intended, by the American Conven- 
tion which were not expressed in their address ; and that 
they were extremely cautious lest they would be instru- 
mental in establishing abroad an apparent branch of the 
Church of England, but in reality a thing essentially 
different in doctrine and discipline. 

But the next Convention in the States gave an assur- 
ance that they had no intention of straying from the con- 
stituent principles of the Church of England ; that they 
had formed a firm resolution to maintain in faith and dis- 
cipline, her essential articles. 

Now, all these proceedings — promises of love, rever- 
ence and submission to the London bishop, and of strict 
adherence to the essential principles of the Established 
Church, on the one part ; and expressions of fear and 
suspicion that there were some alterations intended in 
America, on the other, were exchanged before the Eng- 
lish Prelates had listened to the Petitioners. Finally, 
Seabury was consecrated by some Non-juring bishops in 
Scotland, and White, Madison and Provost under the 
favor of an Act of Parliament by some English prelates. 
Behold the source of the priesthood, if priesthood it could 
be called, in the Episcopal Church of America. What a 
hopeful source I Seabury drew from the Scottish Non- 
jurors, and the other three from the pure fountain of Par- 
liament. And what sort of beings were the Scottish 
Non-jurors ? Dissenters, of course, from the Established 
Church. So then they have Scottish Non-jurors or Dis- 
senters, imparting conjointly with the pure Parliament 
prelates, the sacred character in the American Episcopal 
Church. In what manner, I would gladly know, do the 
waters of the pure and muddy fountains mingle as they 
flow along. As the little leaven corrupts the whole mass, 
is there no danger that the polluted stream of the Non- 
jurors spoils the crystal waters of the Parliament pre- 



INAM ERICA. 97 

lates ; and as nobody can say how many of the American 
ministers drew the sacred character from Seabury, doubt 
and skepticism must follow. 

The English Bishops had smelt, at an early stage of 
the negotiation, the sinister views and intentions of the 
American gentry, and the event has fully proved how 
acute was their sense of smelling : for all the solemn 
promises that were made are basely violated in less than 
five years, in America, by essentially altering the doc- 
trine and discipline of the English Church, and blowing 
off the Royal Head, together with the London bishop. 
They played, indeed, a Yankee trick upon John Bull. 

Who were those Scotch Non-jurors and English 
bishops, upon whom stands the fabric of the American 
church ? have they descended in a regular succession of 
Orders and mission from any apostolical church ? No, 
but from old Harry, Edward, Elizabeth and Cranmer, 
who were excommunicated heretics and schismatics. 
Could they impart Holy Orders which they had not ? They 
imparted only a wound to the heads upon which they 
imposed their sacrilegious hands ; their consecrations 
were desecrations ; their benedictions were maledictions. 

In 1789, that is, five years subsequent to the repeated 
promises of adherence to the principles of the English 
Church, and of faithful obedience to the bishop of London, 
a Convention of Bishops, Clergy and Laity, held in Phila- 
delphia, altered the Book of Common Prayer, and ripped 
it up from top to bottom ; saying in the Preface : *' It is 
a most invaluable part of that blessed liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free, that in his worship different 
forms and usages may, without offence, be allowed, pro- 
vided the substance of the faith be kept entire ; and that 
in every church, what cannot be clearly determined to 
belong to doctrine, must be referred to discipline : and 
therefore, by common consent and authority, may be al- 



98 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

tered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed 
of, as may seem most convenient for tlie edification of the 
people, according to the various exigencies of times and 
occasions. 

^* The Church of England, to which the Protestant, 
Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under God, 
for her first foundation and a long continuance of nursing 
care and protection, hath, in the Preface to her Book of 
Common Prayer, laid it down as a Rule — That the par- 
ticular forms of Divine Worship and the Rites and Cere- 
monies thereof, being things in their nature indifierent 
and alterable, it is but reasonable that upon weighty and 
important considerations, according to the various exi- 
gencies of times and occasions, such changes and alter- 
ations should be made therein, as to those who are in 
places of authority should from time to time seem either 
necessary or expedient. 

*' The same Church hath, not only in her Preface, but 
likewise in her Articles and Homilies .... seeking to 
keep the happy mean between too much stiffness in re- 
fusing, and too much easiness in admitting variations, 
in the reign of several princes, since the first compiling 
of her Liturgy in the time of Edward VI., yielded to 
make such alterations, yet so as that the main body and 
essential parts of the same have still been continued firm 
and unshaken. 

'^ But while these alterations were in review before 
the (American) Convention, they could not but with grati- 
tude to God, embrace the happy occasion which was 
offered to them, to take a further review of the Public 
Service, and to establish such other alterations and amend- 
ments therein as might be deemed expedient; 

" It seems unnecessary to enumerate all the different 
alterations and amendments, as they will appear, and the 
reasons for them also, upon a comparison of this with the 



INAM ERICA. 99 

Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, in 
which it will also appear that this Church is far from 
intending" to depart from the Church of England in any 
essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or fur- 
ther than local circumstances require. 

'* And now, this important work being brought to a 
conclusion, it is hoped that the whole will be received and 
examined by every sincere Christian with a meek, candid, 
and charitable frame of mind, without prejudice or pre- 
possessions." 

Behold the declaration, that this Liturgy was first 
compiled in the time of Edw, VI., and that it underwent 
in the reign of several princes such alterations as were 
in their respective times thought convenient. See Chap- 
ter III. It is not, therefore, that clean and unbloody sac- 
rifice that was, according to the prophet Mai. i. 11, to be 
offered from the rising of the sun, even to the going down, 
and in every place ; not the clean oblation, not the holy 
sacrifice of the Mass, which is offered up in all nations 
ever since the dawn of Christianity. 

They say : '* that in the divine worship, different forms 
may be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be 
kept entire.'^ 

When they speak of the substance of the faith, they 
must have in view some parts that are not substantial, 
but accidental. By what rule do they distinguish the es- 
sential from the non-essential parts of the faith ? What 
appeared essential to little Edward and his uncle the 
Duke of Somerset, the same things appear unessential to 
the American Convention. When will their alterations 
come to an end ? 

They say : '' It is but reasonable that, upon weighty 
considerations, such changes and alterations should be 
made in the particular forms of Divine Worship, as to 
those who are in places of authority should, from time 
to time, seem expedient." 



100 HISTORY OP PROTESTANCY 

Places of authority is a vague expression. As the 
king is placed in authority over the people ; the general, 
over the array ; the admiral, over the sailors ; the teacher, 
over the scholars ; the father, over the family ; the mas- 
ter, over the servants. The king, general, admiral, teacher, 
father, and master, are empowered, according to the Ame- 
rican Convention, to make, unmake, alter, and modify the 
Protestant worship and religion. And what is still more 
horrible, they build their volatile propensities upon the 
apostle. 

"It is," they say, ''a most invaluable part of that 
blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, that 
in his worship different forms and usages may, without 
offense, be allowed." 

Here is revived the old exploded heresy of Pelagius : 
That as they are redeemed by the blood of Christ, they 
have liberty and freedom from the holy commandments ; 
that they may act and think as they please ; that faith 
alone will save them ; that if they murder, rob, steal, 
burn and despoil the asylums of the poor, seduce the 
neighbor's wife or daughter, or perpetrate all the black 
crimes which human nature unaided by divine grace is 
capable of, they have nothing to fear from the wrath of 
God. May Christ Jesus, who has shed his precious blood 
for mankind, save them from the infernal errors of the 
Protestants ! They have already demoralized and ruined 
the world. 

Let them read St. Aiigustine, Tom. lY., De Fide et 
Opribus, C. xxiii.: " They can see the clear saying of the 
Apostle, 1 Fet. xi. 16, where he speaks of those who con- 
strue into the liberty of the flesh and occasion of sin, and 
as a cloak for malice, what is written. Gal. iv. 31, So then, 
hrethrerij we are not the children of the bond-woman but of the 
free, by the freedom ichereicith Christ has ?nade us free; and 
imagine that it signifies free will to live as they please ; 



rt'" 



IN AMERICA. 101 

that as being saved by such great redemption, they sup- 
pose that they may do anything, not noticing Avhat is 
written, 2 Pet. xi. It. These are fountains without water 
and clouds tossed with whirlwinds, to whom the mist of 
darkness is reserved; for, speaking proud things of vanit}^, 
they allure by the desires of fleshly riotousness those who 
for a little while escape, such as converse in error ; pro- 
mising them liberty, whereas they themselves are slaves 
of corruption. For if, flying from the pollutions of the 
world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and over- 
come, their state is become unto them worse than their 
former. For it had been better for them not to have 
known the way of justice, than, after they have known it, 
to turn back from that holy commandment which was 
delivered unto them ; for that of the true proverb has 
happened to them : The dog is returned to his vomit, 
and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the 
mire." 

That the blessed liberty wherewith Christ hath made 
us free, Gal. iv. 31, consists not in freedom to make or 
alter divine worship, but in freedom from the slavery of 
the Mosaic law, becomes evident by taking the whole 
chapter in connection. Verse 3: So we also, when we were 
children, were serving under the elements of the world ; 
but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might 
redeem them who were under the law ; that we receive 
the adoption of sons: .... crying, Abba, Father. And, 
again, Gal. v. 13 : You, brethren, have been called unto 
liberty, only make not liberty an occasion to the flesh, 
but by charity of the spirit serve one another; for the 
law is fulfilled in one word : Thou shall love thy mighhor as 
thyself^ I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not 
fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The works of the flesh are 



102 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

manifest, which are, fornication, uncle anness, immodesty, 
luxury, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, contentions, emula- 
tions, wrath, quarrels, dissentions, sects, envies, murders, 
drunkenness, revellings, and the like. Of the which I 
foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do 
such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God. 

When they assume, from the blessed liberty where- 
with Christ hath made us free, liberty to alter and modify 
divine worship, liberty to create dissensions, sects, and 
divisions from the Church of Christ, they only take the 
liberty of the flesh. There is then before them a wide 
field. They fall into the manifold sins of the flesh above 
mentioned, and forfeit all claims to the kingdom of God. 

Who is the Spiritual Head of the American Protestants ? 

The 37th of the 39 Articles in England saith : The 
King's majesty hath the chief power in this realm of Eng- 
land and other of his dominions : unto whom the chief 
government of all the estates of his realm, whether they 
be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes doth appertain, and 
is not, nor ought to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction. 

The same Article is altered in America thus : '' The 
power of the Civil Magistrate extendeth to all men, as 
well Clergy as Laity, in all things temporal ; but hath 
no authority in things purely spiritual. And we hold it 
to be the duty of all men who are professors of the gospel, 
to pay respectful obedience to the Civil Authority, regu- 
larly and legitimately constituted." 

Wherefore the Anglicans have made the King as their 
spiritual head, but the Americans are since the Revolu- 
tion, in 1776, without a spiritual head of any sort. The 
Anglicans made a head of the King, because he had church 
plunder at his disposal ; but the American wH:)uld not 
assume the President for their spiritual head, because he 
had no good things which he might give them. Had he 



IN AMERICA. 103 

in his power tithes, first fruits, and glebes, it is probable 
that our Episcopalian ministers would not be surpassed 
in loyalty by the Scottish or British Clergy. That is my 
opinion, but I may be wrong. Whereas the Protestant 
ministers are in all countries chips from the same block, 
from schism and heresies ; and whereas they assume the 
liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free, to do the 
works of the flesh, it is likely that their rejection of the 
President's supremacy can be traced to no other cause 
than to the absence of church plunder. I think that we 
are warranted in saying that the English and Scottish par- 
sons will shake off the spiritual headship of their king the 
very moment he will be stripped of his church patronage 
by the Reformers. The wars and financial difficulties 
seem to indicate that crisis ; it will try the parsons' souls. 
If they abandon him in his adversity, after having so long 
stood by him in his prosperity, it will show to the world 
that they were but summer friends, paying allegiance all 
along, not unto him but unto mammon : that they never 
believed at heart what they professed with their mouth : 
that they were but hypocrites and perjurers. 

The Wise Creator hath allotted a head for every so- 
ciety, both rational and irrational : the human body has 
its head ; the family, school, ship, and the State, have 
their respective heads. The Gentiles who have not the 
law, do by nature the things that are of the law and show 
the work of the law written in their heart. Rom. iii. 14. 
Hence the untutored Indians submit to the chief ; the wild 
animals in the prairie, the wild geese in the air, the fishes 
in the deep, and the bees in swarms, being guided by 
nature, or rather by nature's God, pay strict obedience to 
their leaders. Whereas, the Episcopalians had, in the 
year ltT6, abjured the spiritual headship of the King and 
likewise that of the President, who, or what is their head ? 
Can they, as a solitary exception from the order of nature, 



104 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

preserve the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of 
God, or hang together in the bond of charity, without a 
head ? If they can, the Redeemer hath said in vain, John^ 
X. : Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold : them 
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they 
shall be one fold and one shepherd : in vain hath he said : 
He that heareth not the Church, let him be to thee as the 
heathen and publican : in vain hath he said : He that 
heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you de- 
spiseth me. 

Let the goodly people who have revolted from the 
body of Christ, which is the Church, reflect on the words 
of Christ Jesus, John^ xv. 6 : If any one abide not in me, 
he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and 
they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and 
be burned. They liave revolted from the body of Christ ; 
and their own followers, playing their own game back, 
revolt from them. 

The Progress of Dissension among the Sects in Vermont. 

Dr. Hopkins, Prim. Church, p. 2, saith : " Since the days 
of the reformers the propensity to discord has increased, 
until it surpasses the learning of most men to count the 
variety of sects, or trace the causes of their separation." 

Ibid. p. 305, he saith : *' And in our own land, the new 
world, in which every jarring element of religious faction 
finds a home ; where the inventive faculties of our people 
even increases the variety of sects with each succeeding 
generation." He knows full well that religious discord 
among them is on the increase ; that the jarring elements 
find a home in Vermont, and play about his own ears, and 
threaten utter annihilation to his already tottering edifice. 

At Burlington, his episcopal See, there were, in the 
year 1830, but two sects — the Unitarians and Calvinists : 
the former worshiped in the red, and the latter in the 



IN AMERICA. 105 

white meeting-house — so they call their houses of worship. 
The white meeting-house sends forth, in the year 1832, a 
young swarm, who called themselves Episcopals, and 
erected a third meeting-house, which they styled the stone 
meeting-house. And again the same prolific white meet- 
ing-house dispatches, in the year 1833, another hopeful 
swarm, which called themselves Methodists, and erected 
what they styled the brick meeting-house : and in a few 
years a fifth meeting-house was got up, by a sect called 
Baptists. So that in the short space of three or four years 
sectarianism is extremely prolific in that small village ; 
and, contrary to the law of natural generation, the young 
swarms differ the very moment they desert the old ones, 
from them in genus and species, in cast and creed ; but 
as for creed, or settled religious principles, neither the old 
or the young have any such things. 

Now, it might be presumed that Burlington had 
preachers and meeting-houses to their hearts^ content ; 
but they did not think so; some windfalls from each meet- 
ing-house conglomerated into the court-house, to devour 
the new light poured out by every newly arrived Uni- 
versalist minister. Whether these grew up in numbers, 
and erected another house, since my departure from the 
State, I cannot say. 

Wherefores that village of about three thousand in- 
habitants is incumbered with six sects and six preachers, 
and a regular staff of wives and little ones, although the 
apostles had no wives nor children to draw their attention 
from their spiritual callings. To form some idea of the 
immense burden that is entailed upon them, you must 
know that one of the ministers hath nine children to be 
provided for by his flock — one congregation at home, 
according to the flesh, and another in the meeting-house 
according to the spirit. He ought to be able to say 
whether the apostle\s doctrine is truthful, 1 Cor. vii. 32 : 



106 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCT 

He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that 
belong to the Lord, how he can please God ; hut he that 
is with a wife is solicitous for the things of the world, 
how he may please his wife ; and he is divided. And the 
unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of 
the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but 
she that is married thinketh on the things of the world. 

If that village have six preachers, with their wives 
and children to feed, clothe, lodge, and educate, they have 
in return the pleasure to pass on the Sabbath from one 
meeting-house to another, to hear every great preacher that 
comes from the city, which is generally the case, for all 
the sects take good care, for preserving the balance of 
power, to invite, in their turn, some talented spouters 
who will eclipse the neighbors. Let us turn our eyes to 
the neighboring villages. 

In Shelburn, six miles off, there was in the year 1832 
but one congregation, named Episcopalians, having, as 
preacher, a home-spun old gentleman, for whom they 
erected in 1833 a neat two-story brick house. Now, the 
poor old man naturally looked for peace and comfort for 
the rest of his days in the bosom of his good and kind 
hearers; but he soon found that their smiles and good- 
ness was like the winter sunshine, to give place to frost 
and snow ; for scarcely had he brought his* furniture in 
and stretched his old bones in the fine house, when a 
Methodist arrived, who dashed forth from a manuscript 
a few sermons to the gaping flock in the district school- 
house. Not foreseeing that his fountain w^ould soon run 
dry, his written sermons would ere long be exhausted, 
they called him ''a pretty clever preacher;" ''he laid 
down sound premises, and drew excellent conclusions — 
I must go to hear him in the afternoon;" "Luther, Cal- 
vin, and old Harry were wicked men; Episcopalianism 
which came down from them is but mummery, teeming 



IN AMERICA. 107 

with useless and unmeaning formalities, which can stand 
no comparison with the plain scriptural system of John 
Wesley." It need not be told that the old man had to 
clear away to some other quarters. A neat meeting- 
house, with a spire, seats, and horse-sheds, starts up as 
by magic, for the Wesleyan minister. But the set ser- 
mons being in a few months gone by, the preacher^s elo- 
quence is already on the wane; the hearers roll and slum- 
ber on the benches; his discourses are declared to be the 
monotonous recitations of the school-boy; they are no 
longer clever nor pretty, but tiresome and irksome, and 
unfit for these enlightened times. 

Behold ! during this state of things a Universalist 
minister, passing on his way, is requested by some of the 
distracted people to make a display of his principles in 
the aforesaid school-house. In compliance, he opens the 
kingdom of heaven unto all persons, even unto the unbap- 
tized and unrepenting sinners; he denies future judg- 
ment, and likewise hell; he turns into ridicule the Epis- 
copalian and Methodist ministers. There was a general 
shout — " He is the man for us.^^ No pen or tongue could 
describe the bickering and asperity that sprung up among 
that people. The daughters rose against mothers, brothers 
against brothers; relatives, friends, and neighbors are in 
open conflicts with one another; some sided with the 
Universalist, some with the Methodist, and other some 
proposed that the old Episcopalian minister should be 
recalled. Whether they had by some ray of new light 
come at the truth, or made peace upon some solid foun- 
dation, or merely signed an armistice to take time for 
recruiting and preparing themselves for a fiencer cam 
paign, I cannot say; but I can, without fear of contra- 
diction, say, that they never can expect union, harmony, 
nor contentment, until they come into the embraces of the 
fold of Christ — the Holy Catholic Church. 



108 HISTORY OF PROTESTANCY 

At Wallingsford, a village seventy miles further 
south, Calvinism swayed from the first settlement of the 
town until the year 1832, when a part of the congrega- 
tion, being tired and disgusted, as they said, '' from Calvin's 
cant," called for some '' liberal preacher," and, upon being 
refused, they formed a split. The fire thus kindled is 
fanned by every breeze and explodes with a terrific flame 
in the year 1833. The seceders, assuming the theory of 
Methodism, claimed the exclusive use of the meeting- 
house ; but they were defeated by the old stock, who 
proved from the original deeds that the meeting-house, 
with all its rights and appurtenances, should be for ever 
owned by the adherents of Calvin's Confession. But in a 
few years, a strange preacher, coming perhaps from Scot- 
land or from the sectarians in the North of Ireland, 
broached in the school-house a novel theory which he 
called new divinity. The neatness of his dress and ad- 
dress, with the novelty of his thoughts, makes such an im- 
pression, that the whole town, men and women, young and 
old, cast off, without noise or discussion, the old for the 
nsw fashion, Calvinism and Methodism for the New Di- 
vinity. 

These few specimen-cases speak for that whole State : 
every congregation has in a few years issued swarms, 
altered and modified its fashion : so that I have often 
been informed by themselves that the two-thirds of the 
natives were never baptized nor belong to any church, 
because they know not what to believe, amongst the end- 
less conflicts of sectarians. The finger of God is visible 
in all that. 

IsAiAS, xxix. 8. And as he that is hungry dreameth 
and eateth, but when he is awake his soul is empty ; and 
as he that is thirsty dreameth and drinketh, and after he 
is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty ; 



AMERICAN PROTESTANT CHURCH. 109 

SO shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles that have 
fought against Mount Sion, Be astonished and wonder, 
waver and stagger : be drunk, and not with wine : stag- 
ger, and not with drunkenness: for the Lord hath mingled 
for you the spirit of a deep sleep : he will shut up your 
eyes ; he will cover your prophets and princes that see 
visions. Sectarians, you have dreamed out your dreams, 
and yet your soul hungereth and thirsteth ; you have 
fought against Mount Sion ; the Lord hath mingled for 
you the spirit of a deep sleep ; your prophets and princes 
saw visions ; their eyes are covered that they should not 
see the truth . 

You have heard, a little while ago, John Henry Hojpkins, 
D, D.J Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the dio- 
cese of Vermont J in lamentation, because' — *^ Since the days 
of the reformers, the propensity to discord has increased, 
until it surpasses the learning of most men to count the 
variety of sects or trace the causes of their separation. 
And in our own land, the jSTcw World, in which every 
jarring element of religious faction finds a home, here 
the inventive faculties of our people even increases the 
variety of sects with each succeeding generation." This 
is nothing new with the heretics. St. Cyprian, in the year 
250, declares that they had in his days the same propen- 
sity to discord ; that they split every day and hold not 
the same religious sentiments one week, because they are 
detached from the rock of Peter, upon which Christ hath 
built his Church. And why should not the poor reform- 
ers be tossed to and fro, and carried about with every 
wind of doctrine, while they have for their guidance no 
prelate but the Protestant Bishop of Yermont and the 
like, who is himself not more steady, as we are going to 
see, than the meanest of sectarians ? 

6 



110 FOTTETEEH VAGARIES 



CHAPTER VIII. 
FOURTEEN VAGARIES OF JOHN lEMI HOPKINS, 

Protestant Bishop, Vermont. 

In the books — '* Primitive Church," and *^ Primitive 
Creed," Burlington, Yermont, 1834 and 5, he sets forth 
such a variety of doctrines, that the Catholic, the Thirty- 
nine Articles — Protestant, Methodist, Calvinist, Presby- 
terian, Quaker, and even the Universalist, can find in them 
things suitable to his taste. He has, there is no doubt^ 
imitated the shrewd tavern-keeper, who serves up a variety 
of dishes to suit the different palates of his numerous 
boarders. Whereas, the variegated errors which he pro- 
pagates strike at the very root of that faith revealed by 
Christ, preached by the Apostles, watered by the blood 
of the martyrs, and which is the ground of our comfort 
here and our hope hereafter, it would be highly culpable 
to let it go abroad unnoticed. 

FIRST VAGARY. 

He says. Primitive Church, jpage 192. *^ From this we 
see that the three-fold ministry was designed to con- 
tinue after the Apostolic day ; and the testimony of the 
primitive Church declares with one voice that such was 
the universal custom ; that bishops, priests, and deacons 
were everywhere the regular officers of the Christian 
Church : and that there was no Church without them." 
Ihid. p. 330. — " Now from these extracts there are sev- 



OP BISHOP HOPKINS. Ill 

eral points suflBciently manifest : first, that the want of 
Episcopal government is a defect, and a serious defect ; 
but that the Churches that have if not, may, nevertheless, 
be true Churches, as far as regards the essentials of a 
Church/^ 

Here is a dish for the Protestants and another for the 
Presbyterians : in the first proposition he is a Church of 
England man ; and in the second, a Presbyterian Calvin- 
ist ; in the one he says that there was no Church without 
bishops, priests, and deacons ; and in the other, that a 
Church may have the essentials without them. If the 
profane congregations that have no priesthood of any 
sort, may, nevertheless, have the essential attributes of a 
Church, they need not care for the accidental ones. I care- 
fully perused several pages before and after the said page 
330, in quest of some sacred authority for his wild asser- 
tion, but I searched in vain ; no shadow of proof from any 
Apostle, Saint, Pope, or Council is there found ; no, not 
any; but an immense mass of muddy stufi* from Chilling- 
worth, Hooker, Calvin, and others of the same caste. 

On the contrary. Priest and Sacrifice are relative 
terms : never was a priest, that had not a sacrifice to offer, 
nor a sacrifice ofiered but by a priest ; nor was there ever 
found a Church without both the one and the other. The 
Synagogue had them ; the Church of Christ hath them. 
Heb. v.: For every high priest taken from among men is 
ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that 
he may offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins ; who can have 
compassion on them that are ignorant, and that err ; be- 
cause he himself also is compassed with infirmities : Ibid. 
ix. The former indeed had also justifications of worship, 
and a worldly sanctuary : for there was a tabernacle made 

the first, wherein were . Now these things being 

thus ordered, into the first tabernacle the priests indeed 



112 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

always entered, accomplishing the offices of Sacrifices ; but 
into the second the high priest alone, once a 3^ear .... 
Which is a parable of the time present, according to which 
gifts and sacrifices are offered. And the Lord Jesus Christ, 
in creating the Church, left her not without a Hierarchy ; 
he gave her some Apostles, some doctors, and other some 
teachers. 1 Cor. xii. Low, therefore, and miserable must 
be the state of affairs in the Protestant Church, when one 
of her would-be prelates teaches them that if they have 
no bishop whatever, they may have the essential attri- 
butes of a Church. What wonder, then, if all turn out 
prophets and teachers and blow off their ministers altoge- 
ther ! This they will perhaps do when a few more lecturers 
and divines usher from Doctor Hopkins' school. 



SECOND VAGARY. 

Privi. Ch.j p. 188. — '' The Episcopal Church maintains 
that from the Apostles' time there have been three Orders 
of ministers in the Church — bishops, priests, and deacons. 

'' Page 246.- — Speaking of Novatian, Cornelius says, 
Was this vindicator of the Gospel ignorant there ought 
to be but one bishop in' a Catholick Church, in which it 
w^as not unknown to him (for how could it be hid ?) that 
there were forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub- 
deacons, fort^^-two acolytes and exorcists, readers and 
door-keepers." 

Here, also, is a snack for his Episcopals, and one for us 
Catholics. In the first proposition he is a Church of Eng- 
land man; in the second, a Catholic. For his Protestant 
three orders he gives no sort of proof, but for the Catholic 
seven he gives as authority, Cornelius. But who was this 
Cornelius ? — the holy Pope who ruled over the Church in 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 113 

the end of the third century. Upon what principle does 
Dr. Hopkins, who has long since deserted from the Cath- 
olic Church, now lean upon any Pope, Catholic Father, or 
Catholic Council that flourished prior to the days of Lu- 
ther or of Henry VIIL What right has the deserter to 
seek shelter under the batteries of the army from which 
he has deserted ? We Catholics should check his plagiary 
by a legal injunction. He pretends and seems to be en- 
amored with the Primitive Church. But here is St. Cor- 
nelius, the Supreme Pastor of that same Primitive Church, 
declaring in the end of the third century, as a general 
and well-known fact — a fact of which no man could be 
ignorant — that there are seven Orders, and giving, more- 
over, the names and ofiSces of each. The holy Pope stood 
not alone in teaching that doctrine, for their names and 
offices are also recorded by Dionys. Hist. Ecd. Con. Car- 
thag. IV. Can. 4, and passim; Ignat. JEpist. ad Antioc. Con, 
Trid. Sess. XXIII. ^ c. 2. Nay, the unbroken current of 
tradition attests the same fact, that there ought to be 
seven Orders. Has Dr. Hopkins, then, the face to teach, 
in the teeth of all these witnesses, that there ought to be 
but three Orders ? 



TPIIRD VAGARY. 

He says. Prim. Ch.^ p. 2 : — "Then, led by the spirit of 
truth, and faithfully endeavoring to be guided by the 
Scriptures, Luther, and Calvin, and Zuinglius, and the 
martyrs of the Church of England, did indeed victoriously 
resist the usurpations of the Church of Rome. They suc- 
ceeded in rescuing multitudes from the yoke of priestly 
tyranny, and in establishing a far purer and more scrip- 
tural system. But to restore the primitive union of the 
Church of Christ was impossible. Nay, they could not 
even establish union amongst themselves." 



114 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

Ibid., p. 193. — ''Then Luther, and Calvin, and Zuing- 
lius, who had no bishops in their parties, were reduced 
to the necessity of casting aside this feature of the Apos- 
tolic system, and of going on without it, or else the pro- 
gress of reform must have ceased for want of ministers." 
Ibid. p. 257. ''Calvin had no bishops on his side, and felt 
constrained to dispense with them." 

Now it is ascertained from an authority that cannot 
be questioned — from a Protestant Prelate, that Luther 
and Calvin, and Zuinglius, and the English Reformers, 
had no bishops in their parties ; and that if they had not 
cast them overboard and gone on without them, the pro- 
gress of reform would have ceased. Now a question, 
serious, and entitled to the solemn attention of all Pro- 
testants, arises ; if the worthies had cast their bishops 
into the deep and sailed on without them, how has it hap- 
pened that they picked them up again on the reform- 
voyage ? It is not even pretended that they picked them 
up : for if they had picked them up, the progress of the 
reform should have ceased. From this concession which 
he makes, it is evident, even in the absence of any other 
proof, that the Lutherans, Calvinists, Zuinglians, and the 
Protestants, have, neither in England, nor in America, 
nor anywhere else, a Priesthood of ahy sort; and that 
their congregations are profane assemblages of Presby- 
terians from that day to this. Poor infatuated Protest- 
ants, how they are duped by their infidel, hypocritical 
teachers ! 

Is it not horrid blasphemy for him to ascribe to the 
Spirit of Truth what Luther himself ascribed to the devil, 
with whom, he said in his publications, he had several 
protracted and weighty conferences ? The assertion that 
the Reformers were led by the Spirit of Truth to resist 
the ancient Church, rescue multitudes from priestly tyranny ^ 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 116 

and to establish a purer and more scriptural system, comes 
with bad grace from any man calling himself a bishop ; 
it may perhaps sound sweetly in the mouth of a Presby- 
terian, or a Universalist. Has the Doctor th« folly to 
say that those who victoriously resist the Church, and 
shake oflf the priesthood, can establish a purer and more 
scriptural system ? Will not the people take him on his 
own word, and, to the purpose of arriving at this pure 
and scriptural s^^stem, discard both himself and his minis- 
ters ? And what, let me ask, is this innate defect in 
Holy Orders, that persons ordained can never discover or 
retain the pure religion, whilst the laity can ? I should 
like to hear the sapient Doctor answer the question. 

So that as soon as Luther and his fraternity deserted 
the Fold, their conventicles went to pieces; the obstacles 
to a reunion were insurmountable ; the same spirit of 
disunion increases among them ever since, until the sects 
so far multiplied that no man could now-a-days count 
them, nor say what is the cause of their separation. 
Doctor Hopkins is all in tears for this desolation of souls 
and distraction of Sion. What other result could they 
expect, who have deserted the Fold and Pastor, and pulled 
down all the landmarks of their forefathers ; they who 
embrace and follow, each of them, whatever religious 
system they please ? If the people, in politics, castaway 
the Governor and the laws, anarchy and barbarity would 
be the consequence ; if the students despise the teacher 
and his rules, quarrels and divisions would follow. But 
when the people and the students again see their folly, 
what other course would prudence and self-preservation 
recommend, but to retrace their steps to the very point 
from which they had^ in their madness, started — to re- 
establish the laws and re-submit themselves to the Gov- 
ernor ? And why should not the Protestants, if their tears 
are sincere for the divisions of Sion, adopt the same course ? 



116 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 



FOUKTH VAGAEY 



He says, Prim. Ch., p. 252: ^'I begin with Calvin, who 
honestly praises, although he did not follow, the primitive 
Church. In his great work, the Institute of the Christ- 
ian Religion, he uses these words." He says, Prim. Ch.y 
jp.^280: ^' And as I regard the admission of Calvin with 
more than common partiality, I shall commence with a few 
lines of his Christian Institute. The chief thing in the office 
of a bishop, saith Calvin, is to teach the people the word of 
God; the next, to administer the sacraments; the third, to 
admonish and correct; yea, to correct those who sin^ and 
to keep the people within the bounds of holy discipline." 

What a fine fellow was Calvin, who after he had dis- 
carded bishops and gone on without them, begins to dis- 
cant on their duties — to tell them that they are in duty 
bound to preach the word, minister the sacraments, ad- 
monish and correct the sinners. Does Doctor Hopkins 
really imagine that the man that cast away bishops and 
went on without them, could have a Christian Institute, 
or any spark of Christianity ? And why does he regard 
the admissions of Calvin with more than common parti- 
ality? Is it because he cast away bishops? Verily 
it would seem that the man who so highly praises the 
anti-bishop Calvin is anxious that others would follow 
Calvin's steps, that he is a Calvinist or Presbyterian at 
heart ; gnawing, under mask of a bishop, the very vitals 
of his own Episcopal Church. If there be in the United 
States a few more Hopkinses, the Protestant Church will 
be a gone-by thing; nowhere to be found. 



FIFTH VAGAEY. 



He says, Prim. Ch.y jp. 192: ''The presbyters being 
the assistants of the bishops in preaching and adminis- 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. IIT 

tering the sacraments, and the deacons aiding* both in the 
lower functions of the ministerial office; but the superior 
powers of ordination and of government being confined 
to the bishop alone. In case of difficulty demanding com- 
mon consultation, the Apostles assembled together in 
council. In like manner, the primitive bishops assembled 
for similar purpose, and each bishop possessed an equal 
voice in the decision.'^ 

He says, Prim. Ch., p. 253: '' Those to whom the office 
of teaching was enjoined, continues Calvin, were called 
presbyters. They elected one out of their number in 
each city, to whom they gave especially the title of bishop, 
lest from equality, as usually happens, dissensions might 
arise. The bishop, however, was not superior in honor 
and dignity, as to have any domination amongst his col- 
leagues; but the same duties which the Consul had in 
the Senate; that he might propose the subjects of busi- 
ness and collect the opinions; that he might have the 
precedency before others in consulting, admonishing, and 
exhorting; that he might rule their whole movements by 
his authority, and execute wliatever was decreed by their 
common counsel. But so far as it appertained to the of- 
fice of which we are speaking, continues Calvin, the dis- 
pensation of the word and of the sacraments was equally 
incumbent on the presbyters and on the bishop.'' 

He says. Prim. Ck., p. 256 : '' With all his (Calvin's) 
disposition to lower the order of bishops, he grants them 
as much superiority as the Consul in the Roman Repub- 
lick; and that, by the way, is a Utile more than our bishops, 
at the present day, are disposed to claim." 

Here again is Doctor Hopkins this, and that, and every 
thing: in the first paragraph a Church of England man ; 
in the second a Presbyterian ; there he centres the Church 
government in the bishops, but here he makes cyphers 

6* 



118 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

of them, sinks them lower thau the consul or moderator, 
with power only to propose the subjects for discussion in 
the assembly, collect the votes, and execute the resolves. 
That is exactly Calvin's notion, which is adopted by the 
Presbyterians of these times. And that is, by the way, 
a little more than the Protestant bishops in America are 
disposed to claim. '^ Whereas the meek and humble Pro- 
testant bishops are willing to accept a little less power 
than that of the consul or moderator, by what rule 
or standard do they measure that little less power — by 
inches, pints, or ounces ? What is its quality ; is it of a 
long, dry, liquid, or weighty nature ? See the advantage 
of school education. I have learned the rudiments of 
arithmetic at the pure fountain of the far-famed mathe- 
matician Mr. John O'Connor, about the year 1784, at 
Knuckcapul, in the sweet glyn of Launa. He told us that 
there are five sorts of measures. Long measure, Dry 
measure. Liquid measure, Troy weight, and Avoirdupois ; 
and that gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones are mea- 
sured by troy weight, that is, twelve ounces to the pound. 
Hence I presume that as the American prelates are more 
precious than gold, silver, jewels or any pearls, they 
come under Troy weight, that they are weighed at twelve 
ounces to the pound ; they ought to let the people know 
whether my calculation is accurate or not. However, 
this one thing is beyond a doubt, that the people in the 
United States calling themselves Episcopalians are Pres- 
byterians in fact. 



SIXTH VAGARY. 

He saith, Prim. Ck., f. 233. '' Our Lord and Savior, 
Matt, xvi., giveth his Apostles regiment, in general, over 
God's Church. For they that have the keys of the king- 



OP BISHOP HOPKINS. 119 

dom of heaven, are thereby signified to be stewards of 
God^s house, under whom they guide, command, judge, and 
correct his family. And because their office therein con- 
sisteth of sundry functions, some belonging to doctrine, 
some to discipline, all contained in the name of the Keys, 
they have for matters of discipline as well litigious as 
criminal, their courts and consistories erected by the hea- 
venly authority of the most sacred voice who hath said, 
Tell the ChurchP 

What do I see ? is it possible that my eyes deceive 
me ? Here is sound Catholic doctrine taught by him ; 
** that the Apostles, and, of course, their successors, re- 
ceived from Christ the keys of the kingdom of heaven, with 
power to command, judge, and correct, his family in mat- 
ters of doctrine and discipline ; that the text, Tell the 
Church, signifies that all matters, litigious and criminal, 
appertain to their courts and consistories. Is it possible 
that such Catholic doctrine would come from the pen of 
him who had a little while ago boasted with seeming de- 
light that the reformers had victoriously resisted the 
same successors, and rescued multitudes from priestly 
tyranny, and cast off bishops and gone on without them I 
And why, let me repeat the question, does he teach one 
thing at one time, and another thing at another time ? 
He, has without doubt, taken a lesson from the world- 
lings. It is reported that some prudential venders of 
spurious wares exhibit, for deception sake, now and then, 
the genuine. 



SEVENTH VAGARY. 

He saith, Fnm. Ch. p. 192. — ''From this we distinctly 
see, that bishops, priests, and deacons are every where the 
regular officers of the Church; and that there was no church 



120 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

without them ; and as St. Paul placed Timothy and Titus 
over the Churches of Ephesus and Crete, so the other 
Apostles had ordained the first bishops in every city. The 
presbyters and deacons were helpers ; but the superior 
powers of ordination and government were confined to 
the bishops alone." 

Prim. Ch. p. 269. — " And in the subscriptions of the 
bishops at the great council of Nice in the year 325, we 
find a number of instances. Thus we read of John, bishop 
of Persia, Euphrosynus, bishop of the island of Rhodes." 

May I hope that our readers will remember the words 
of Doctor Hopkins : ''The superior powers of ordination 
and government were confined to the bishops alone." 
That the laity had no hand or part in the Councils of Je- 
rusalem and Nice. Had the Redeemer, or Apostles, or 
the primitive bishops, held deliberations with the laity 
concerning the doctrine to be preached, and the Churches 
to be founded, they would have made a pretty work of it. 
They not only propagated the gospel, and sent missiona- 
ries, and founded Churches without consulting Caesar and 
his governors, but in direct opposition to them : Acts. v. 
27. The high priests asked them, saying. Commanding 
we command you that you should not teach in his name : 
and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine 
and you have a mind to bring the blood of this man upon 
us, but Peter and the Apostles answering said. We 
ought to obey God rather than man. 

With these facts before their eyes, it is astonishing 
that the Protestants would in America adopt for the gov- 
ernment of their religious s^^stem. Conventions of Bish- 
ops, Clergy, and Lait}^, as we shall, in the sequel see 
them doing. Alas, the poor Clergy could not act other- 
wise : had they at the Revolution excluded the laity ; 
had they not adopted the Republican system, it is ex- 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 121 

tremely probable there would be no Episcopal Church in 
the States from that time to this ; that undisguised Pres- 
byterianism would be generally adopted ; the Protestants 
were then too far gone in *' gospel liberty," as not to have 
Clergy, according to their own desires. 

Why should he assert '' that each bishop possessed an 
equal voice in the decision ?" As he seems to own the 
Acts or Decrees of the Council of Nice, he must see, if 
he does not close his eyes, that Osius, bishop of Cordova, 
in Spain, and Victor and Yincentius, priests from Rome, 
presided in that Council, in the name of Pope Sylvester. 



EIGHTH VAGAKY. 

He says. Prim. Ch.'p. 260. — '^ It is asked, says Le Clerc, 
among Christians, which form of Church government is 
from the Apostles ? for that form seems to be preferred be- 
fore others which was constituted in the beginning ; and of 
the two Churches, in which otherwise the gospel is taught 
with truth and purity, that Church is to be chosen in 
which the Apostolic form of government exists; although 
the government without the thing, that is, government 
without the gospel, is but the empty image of the Church." 

*'But now there are two forms of Church government, 
of which the one is that where the Church acts under a 
single bishop, who alone has the right of ordaining pres- 
byters and the other inferior orders of evangelical min- 
isters; and the other, where the Church is governed by 
equal presbyters, to whom are joined from the people 
certain men of some prudence and irreproachable conduct. 
Those who have read without prejudice the remains of 
the most ancient Christian writers, know well that the 
first form of discipline, which is called Ejpiscojpal^ such as 
we see in the southern part of Great Britain, was every- 



122 FOURTEEN VAGAKIES 

where established in the very next age after the Apostles; 
whence we may suppose that it was of Apostolic con- 
stitution. But the other, which they call Presbyterian^ was 
instituted in many parts of France, Switzerland, Ger- 
many, and Holland, by those who in the sixteenth cen- 
tury seceded from the Church of Rome." 

Let us pause a moment to digest the delicious dish 
served up by Doctor Hopkins and his guide, Le Clerc. They 
imagine two forms of Church government — the one Epis- 
copal, where the Church is governed by a single Bishop, and 
the other Preslyterian, where it is ruled by equal preshyters 
and certain men of some prudence, chosen from the laity; 
the one prevails in South Britain, and the other in many 
parts of France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and in 
Scotland — the one is Apostolic, because it came down 
from the Apostles; and the other unchristian, because it 
was invented in the sixteenth century by those who se- 
ceded from the Church of Rome. May I hope that the 
reader will not forget the definition which they give of 
an Episcopal Church and a Presbyterian congregation, 
for he will find, by-and-by, the very same system of gov- 
ernment which they call Presbyterianism, adopted by the 
Episcopals in America. 

Further, *' although the two Churches have equal pre- 
tensions to gospel purity ; although it be preached as 
pure in the one as in the other, yet the ancient Church 
holding the Apostolic mode of government is preferable 
to the Church that has it not." It is astonishing that any 
people calling themselves Christians would ask such a 
question, as Le Clerc says they did: it is also astonishing 
that any Christians would be so silly as to suppose that 
the gospel could be taught or preserved pure in the Con- 
gregation that started into existence in the sixteenth 
century, and that drew neither orders nor mission from 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 123 

the Apostles. How shall they believe him of whom they 
have not heard ? And how shall they hear without a 
preacher ? And how shall they preach unless they be 
sent ? Rom. x, 

¥com these reflections another question of the highest 
importance to all Protestants arises ; namely, have the 
Episcopals themselves a priesthood or mission ? Proof 
in abundance is at hand, that they have not — that neither 
heretics, schismatics, nor excommunicated persons, have or 
can have a priesthood or worship that could by any means 
avail them to salvation. And even if we had not hitherto 
seen any such proof, Dr. Hopkins himself supplies it. 



VAGARY NINTH. 

He says, Fn?7i. Ch.p. 26 1. — " The Church, from Maine to 
Florida, is one body, connected by the most perfect rules of 
unity, doctrine, t(;cri'/^i^ and discipline; in none of which can 
any change be made, without the regular action of the whole 
meeting together in General Convention every third year, 
or oftener if necessary, and voting by their representa- 
tives in a manner altogether republican." Ibid. p. 286. 

'' We next turn to the legislative power of the Church, 
in which we more especially find the perfect application 
of republican maxims of government as they are developed 
in the Constitution of the United States. 

'* The bishop is governor and judge of the Church within 
his own diocese, but he can make no law or canon ; his 
power over the laws of the Church is no greater than the 
power of the civil judge over the laws of the land ; he is 
to expound and apply them, and he can do no more. But 
for the making of laws, each parish sends its delegates, 
elected by its vestry, from the laymen, to represent it in 
the diocesan Convention, which, like the Legislatures of 
the States, meets once in every year ; the presbyters 



124 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

and deacons are also entitled to a seat in this Convention, 
subject to certain diocesan qualifications, and the bishop 
presides. In this body thus composed of the whole Church 
in each diocese, the laity being present by their chosen 
representatives, and being always, in number, more than 
the Clergy themselves, all the Canons of each particular 
diocese are proposed, discussed, and passed, by the con- 
sent of the majority, in a manner which bears the closest 

analogy to the civil government of our country 

the bishop and the Clergy united cannot make any rule or 
law whatever.'' 

Behold the Constitution and legislation of the high- 
sounding Episcopal Church in America. It is indeed '' a 
perfect application of republican maxims f an accurate 
imitation of the United States Constitution — that popular 
form of Church Government '' where the Church is ruled by 
the bishop, equal presbyters, and certain men of some pru- 
dence and good conversation from among the laity," the 
identical, form, which, as Le Clerc, said, is the Freshyterian ; 
which was instituted in many parts of France, Switzerland, 
Germany, and Holland, by those that seceded in the six- 
teenth century from the Church of Rome. Therefore, there 
are in the United States of America, people calling them- 
selves Episcopals, who are Presbyterians in fact : there 
may be some charm in the name Episcopal, after the 
reality is gone by. 

As the lay influence always prevails in their con- 
vention, it is but an assemblage of worldlings, divested 
of all religious features whatever ; and as no sacred or 
religious qualification is required in the lay delegates, 
the parish may delegate Unitarians, Socinians, or Athe- 
ists ; and then the laws of the Episcopal Church sink 
down into atheism. What is to prevent it ? Surely, the 
Protestant Bishop, witli his would-be clergy, cannot stand 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 125 

opposite and say ; this must not be ; for he is but a gov- 
ernor and judge, bound to interpret and apply the laws, 
not to alter or modify them. He may, if he demur or re- 
fuse to execute them, soon feel a perfect application of 
republican maxims ; he may soon be sent home, as the 
school-mistress is dismissed by the Select Men, to mind 
his wife and little Evangelicals. 

^' No change can be made in doctrine^ worship^ or disci- 
pliney without the regular action of the whole Conven- 
tion.^' What is the inference, but that that motley as- 
semblage of would-be bishops, presbyters, and laymen, 
take upon themselves to change their doctrine and wor- 
ship ? In that case, nothing can prevent some future 
Conventions, if inflated with civil and religious liberty, 
from voting away Christianity altogether. If they look 
upon their doctrine and worship as changeable things, 
they cannot call them the doctrine or worship of God, 
for God's law endureth for ever ; neither one iota nor one 
particle can be taken from it until the end of time. If 
that lay convention (it cannot be called by any other 
name ; for the laity will always have the majority) amend 
and abrogate their doctrine and worship from year to 
year, Avhat is to arrest the torrent of infidelity ? Will not 
some future Conventions set aside the doings and the doc- 
trine of the present reformers, and substitute for Episco- 
pacy and priesthood, as Luther, and Calvin, and Zuing- 
lius, and the English Reformers did, '^some purer and 
more scriptural system." Such was the progress of the 
Reformation in all countries that embraced it. The first 
step was to abolish Ihe priesthood ; the second, to get up 
lay preachers and lay conventions ; and the last, divisions, 
doubts, and atheism. Witness Germany, England, and 
even our own United States, and particularly New-Eng- 
land, where half or more of the population declare with- 
out fear of God, or shame of man, that they were never 



126 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

baptized, that they belong to no Church, and that they 
know not, in the perpetual conflicts of sects, what to 
believe. 



TENTH VAGARY. 

He says, Prim. Ch. p. 302. — '' But it may be asked, is 
there no way in which Christian U7iity can be accomplished ? 
Shall the people of God never walk together on earth again ? 
Is there no principle in which all that call upon the same 
Lord can agree to bring them out of this awful state of 
distraction ? 0, my brethren, how often have I thought 
of this question, until my heart yearned over the miseries 
of sectarian division^ and felt as if my life would be a cheap 
sacrifice for the unity of Zion. How often have I dwelt 
upon the mode in which alone it seemed to my mind 
that such a glorious result could be accomplished, until 
I almost imagined that the time had come for healing 
the wounds and restoring the peace of the Redeemer's 
kingdom. 

Page 303. — ''I represent to myself, in fancy, a period 
when good men of every denomination and party have 
become sick and weary of discord and confusion, of slander 
and calumn}^, of intolerance and persecution, and long with 
intense desire for primitive unity and order. At length 
the favored hour is come, and lo ! a general cry is heard 
for a UNIVERSAL COUlsCIL— a great Convention, in 
which every sect should appear, by its representatives, 
chosen by election, after solemn fastiiig and prayer." 

Page 304. — ''Rome hears and responds to the appeal. 
Her empire weakened, if not broken, and threatened more 
and more, if not by the progress of the Reformation, by the 
far more fatal march of infidelity ; her Hierarchy tired of 
warfare and intrigue; her Pontifi* disposed to risk a por- 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 127 

tion of his cumbrous and painful honors for the sake of 
peace. Greece gladly unites with the proposal, and so 
does Protestant Germany. 

'' England now, more than ever, feeling the absolute 
necessity of religious unity — England, chafed and irritat- 
ed by tiie restless demon of sectarian zeal; once revolu- 
tionized by the fury of fanaticism, and now bleeding 
under the lash of civil discord — England hails the sum- 
mons, and joyfully yields her treasures of genius and piety 
to the work which promises to make the holy Catholic 
Church one Church again. 

Fage 305. — '' And in our own land, the New World, in 
which every jarring element finds a home; where the 
inventive faculties of our people even increase the variety 
of sects with each succeeding generation .... where 
every possible motive should impel each branch of Christ's 
kingdom to desire a cessation of hostilities; in this land 
of Conventions, the land of Unions, there is a universal 
welcome ready for the measure so old, and yet so new, of 
a GENERAL COUNCIL of Christendom. 

*' And now the principle is to be settled which shall 
guide the deliberations of this august body . . . The Word 
of Godj and the writings of the Fathers, being^ in fact, the 
only authorities to which the great divisions of the Christ- 
ian world ever have appealed, to these the appeal must 
be made, and by these the acts of the Universal Council 
must be guided, in the hope of regaining primitive unity 
once more." 

The ship, when drifted from her mooring, is blown on- 
ward through the boundless deep, without pilot, helm, and 
compass, amidst direl\il rocks and quicksands, beset with 
infernal sharks, to gnaw and crush each sinking soul; 
whilst the helpless, trembling seamen casts a wistful eye 
upon the receding shore. Luther, and Calvin, and Zuing- 



128 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

lius, and the English Reformers, had let loose the barge, 
cast bishops overboard, and Popes, and Councils, and 
Fathers, as useless lumber, and sailed out without them; 
and now the poor mariner sees no chance or mode of restor- 
ing Christian unity, and bringing Christians out of their 
awful distraction and sectarian divisions, but by resum- 
ing the very things that were thrown overboard — Po^pe^ 
Fathers, and Councils. 

*' England, chafed and irritated by the restless demon 
of sectarian zeal, once revolutionized by the fury of fanat 
icism. In the New World, where every jarring element 
of religious faction finds a home; the inventive faculties 
of the people even increase the variety of sects with each 
succeeding age, insomuch that learned men can hardly 
count the sects, or point out the difference between them 
or the cause of the separation." Ye shades of Luther, 
and Calvin, and Zuinglius, and English Reformers, where 
are ye ? And you, Elizabeth, and Edward, and Cranmer, 
is it thus that yojir Church plunderings, your fines, and 
prisons, and gibbets, go with the wind ? Where are your 
Penal Laws against Catholics ? Is your Book of Common 
Prayer and Protestant Church going and for ever gone, 
chafed and irritated by the restless demon of sectarian 
divisions ? Is there no hope of salvation for you but by 
retracing your steps towards the Catholic port, and restor 
ing to their rightful station the Fathers, Popes, and the 
Councils which you had long since thrown by ? 

On the contrary, it is written in the sixth of the 39 
Articles : " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary 
to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor 
may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man 
that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be 
thought requisite or necessary to salvation." And again 
it is written in the twenty-first of the 39 Articles : ^' General 
Councils may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 129 

pertaining to God. Wherefore things pertaining by them 
as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor author- 
ity, unless it may be declared that they are taken out of 
holy scripture/^ 

Therefore Doctor Hopkins, by recommending a Gene- 
ral Council as the only probable means for healing the 
wounds inflicted by sectarianism on Christ's Church* and 
by recommending the Bible and Fathers as the only 
standard to guide that Assembly's deliberations, abjures 
the Protestant Church — the crazy, mastless hulk. This 
shows his good sense and prudence. It is written, I am 
found by them that call me not. God, who wills not the death 
of the sinner, but that he be converted and live, calls him 
by various ways and diverse manners : now he opens to 
his eyes the yawning deep below, and then he gives him 
a glimpse into the joys above ; now he pictures to him 
the miserable state of sin in which he stands, and then he 
fixes his eyes with sickness, trials, or afflictions upon 
death. Will not the patient that sees his own dreadful 
state, speedily seek for efi*ectual cure ? will not the onward 
traveler, when he sees the awful precipice ahead, at once 
retrace his steps? Will not Doctor Hopkins, when he 
sees the spasms and convulsions of the Law-Established 
Church, how she is, at home and abroad, chafed, irritated, 
distracted by the demoniac fanatic^s, abandon for ever the 
crazy, agonizing hulk, and board again the Catholic Ark, 
that has already braved the storms of eighteen hundred 
years ? 

But alas, a formidable, and to others an insurmount- 
able obstacle stands in his way, namely, the wife and the 
children. He that is with a wife is solicitous for the things 
of the world, and he is divided. And again, The man 
serving as a soldier to God involves not himself in worldly 
affairs. Therefore neither the Apostles, nor the primitive 



^30 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

Clergy, nor any Clergy ever since, in the Catholic Church 
of Christ, were incumbered with a wife or little ones ; 
nor did they involve themselves in w^orldly businesses. 
•Protestant ministers, if sincere in their professions for 
unity in the kingdom of God, should at once fall into the 
same practice of Apostolic celibacy. But if they do, what 
would become of all their wives and little things ; how 
and where would they find food and raiment ? It is from 
this cause, but from no other — the necessity of providing 
bread for themselves and families, that fanatical minis- 
ters engender and uphold sects. Until the American 
Protestants see through this, and somehow remedy the 
evil, by forcing the ministers to adopt the Apostolic celi- 
bacy, it will be useless to talk of unity in the kingdom of 
Christ. 

Although to leave his wife and little ones for the sake 
of peace and unity in Sion, be irksome and painful to other 
ministers, it cannot be so to Doctor Hopkins, saying: '* O 
my brethren, how often have I thought of the question of 
union, until my heart yearned over sectarian divisions, 
and felt as if my life would be a cheap sacrifice for the 
unity of Sion." Surely, a separation from his wife and 
children for Christ^s sake, can be no difiSculty to the man 
who considers his life a cheap sacrifice for the unity of 
Sion. 

Behold the Reverend Messrs. Barber, of Xew-Hampshire, 
Richard J of Montreal, and the Honorable Spencer Percivalj 
of England' — Clergy of spotless fame and conversation, 
presiding over numerous and respectable flocks, pos- 
sessing the fat of the land, and enjoying to the very mo- 
ment of their conversion, the good graces of their Supe- 
riors. Nor could the concupiscence of the flesh, nor 
the concupiscence of the eyes, nor the pride of life, move 
them to abjure the Protestant for the Catholic Church : 
for in the former they had ample patrimony, no restraint 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 131 

of celibacy, whilst they had no earthly expectation in the 
latter, than poverty, chastity, continency, prayer, and fas^ 
ing. Their irreproachable career in the Catholic Church 
is the best evidence that their conversion sprung not from 
any profane or worldly motives; for as soon as the Master 
stood at the gate and knocked, they heard his voice, and 
opened to him the door ; as soon as He said to them : 
Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of 
men, they left the nets and entanglements of Protestancy, 
obtained absolution from their heresies, studied Catholic 
divinity, and received Holy Orders from the Catholic 
Bishop. 

Behold, said St. Peter, we have left all things and fol- 
lowed thee, what reward therefore shall we have ? Jesus 
said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you who have fol- 
lowed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall 
sit on the seat of his Majesty, yC)U shall sit on twelve 
seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; and every one 
that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, 
shall receive an hundred fold, and shall possess life ever- 
lasting. Matt. xix. 

Dr. Hopkins, if he would follow their steps, do as tliey 
did, regain the Catholic Church, the only port for security, 
will not have to abandon, in fact, but merely in affection, 
his lands, or his house, his wife, or his children, keeping 
in view the Apostle's admonition, 1 Cor. vii. 29, This, 
therefore, I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth 
that they also who have wives, be as if they had none; 
and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they 
that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that 
use this world, as if they used it not, for the fashion of 
this world passeth away : that is, as St. Gregory the 
Great expounds, the man that has a wife, is as if he had 
her not, when he retains his affection towards her, subject 



132 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

to the love that is due to God, and loves her not from any 
sensual or impure motive, but because the Apostle com- 
mands : Husbands, luve your wives, as Christ also loved 
his Church and gave himself up for her. The man that 
weeps, is, as though he wept not, when he never, in his 
earthly grief and trials ceases to reflect on the lasting 
joys of heaven; and the man that rejoices is, as though he 
rejoiced not, when he never, in the midst of his sensual 
joys and pleasures, loses sight of the future judgment. 

The Apostle then says. The fashion of this icorld passeth 
away, as if he would say. It is beneath immortal souls to 
love the things or allurements of this world, that quickly 
recedes from view. As the Psalmist said : Trust not in 
iniquity, and screen not rapine ; if riches abound, set not 
thy heart upon them. And as Christ Jesus hath said, 1 
came to set man at variance against his father, and the 
daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law 
against her mother-in-law ; and a man^s enemies shall be 
they of his own house. He that loveth father or mother 
more than me, is not worthy of me. 

As it is also written. And let not the husland pit away 
his wife, the doctor need not for the attainment of laical 
communion leave his wife, but for being promoted to Holy 
Orders in Christ^s Church the vow of Celibacy is indis- 
pensably necessary. Whilst the journeys, trials, compan- 
ions, and persecutions of the Apostles are minutely re- 
corded in the Acts, there is no mention whatever that 
they were, subsequent to their vocation, incumbered with 
wives or little ones. 

He saya, '* Rome hears and responds to the appeal. 
Her Hierarchy, tired of warfare and intrigue. Her Pon- 
tiff disposed to risk a portion of his cumbrous and pain- 
ful honors for the sake of peace." 

Our Catholic clergy tired of warfare and intrigue. 
Had he said so of the Protestant ministers there may be 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 133 

some truth in the saying : they are chafed, and irritated, 
and kept constantly in hot water by the demon of sec- 
tarian warfare. If intrigue mean *^ to form plots, or carry 
on private designs," the epithet truly fits his own frater- 
nity both in England and America : for Cranmer and the 
rest of them first intrigued with Henry VIII. for divorc- 
ing and beheading his wives, plundering the religious 
houses, and hurling the kingdom into the gulf of schism ; 
secondly, they have intrigued and pandered to Edward 
VI. for creating the Protestant Church and Book of Com- 
mon Prayer ; thirdly, they have, by base intrigue and 
perjury, sworn as long as he had good things in his hands, 
that he is Head of their Church, but the very moment he 
lost them in America they pandered to him no longer ; 
they shook him ofi*; in short, the Protestant clergy intrigue 
with the king on every question between hiria and the 
people. 

On the contrary, the Catholic Clergy stand to their 
conscience and to the people. By whose influence prin- 
cipally had Magna Charta been obtained in the reign of 
king John, that great national Covenant, the pride and 
boast of England ? By the influence of a Catholic Bishop, 
Langton. By whose influence principally had Catholic 
Emancipation been wrested from England in the year 
1829? By the influence of the Catholic Clergy of Ire- 
land. Had they then intrigued with the ministers of the 
Crown ; had they abandoned the people and pursued first 
fruits, tythes, and glebes, as the Protestant Clergy did, 
vain would have been the struggles of O'Connell. Had 
they not braved the cholera in all its ghastly and terrific 
features ; had they by intrigue abandoned the dying, as 
the Protestant ministers did in Dublin and Quebec, they 
would be justly cliafed and irritated by the restless de- 
mon of Sectarianism. 

"The Roman Pontiff," he says, *^ is disposed to risk a 

1 



134 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

portion of his cumbrous and painful honors for the sake 
of peace.'^ 

Through what channel has the Doctor learned that His 
Holiness is disposed to risk a portion of the Deposite for 
the sake of peace with Protestants ? He has learned it 
from no quarter ; it is but a re very ; if he really believes 
as he writes, he deceives and is deceived. Supposing, for 
argument sake, that the Pope would compromise — agree 
to split the difference, as they do at the fairs in Ireland, 
would that attract all the clashing sects into the bosom 
of the Church and restore peace and unity to Sion ? It 
would produce a contrary effect ; the jarring elements 
would soon be chafed, irritated, and distracted by the 
demon of fanaticism. The Pope never will, never can 
compromise : he will steer the Ark, relying on the prom- 
ise of Christ that the gates of hell will not prevail against her. 



ELEVENTH VAGAEY. 

^' In cases of difficulty, demanding common consulta- 
tion the primitive Bishops assembled, and each 

bishop possessed an equal voice in the decision. But the 
superior importance of the cities in which they resided, 
and the greater comparative extent of their official in- 
fluence, soon prepared the way for a pre-eminence amongst 
the Bishops themselves which led in a few centuries to the 
establishing of Metropolitans, Archbishops, Primates and 
Patriarchs. The conversion of Constantine, the Em- 
peror of Rome, induced a high degree of worldly conse- 
quence to be attached to these distinctions ; and pride 
and power went hand in hand ; until, finally, ahont the he- 
ginning of the seventh century, the influence of the Bishop 
of Rome became a sort of legalized usurpation ; and in 
a few years more the domination of Popery assumed the 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 136 

form of iron supremacy, which was broken by the Reform- 
ation. 

Mark the vague and indefinite expressions — '' soon," 
'' in a few centuries," '' about the beginning of the seventh 
century," ^^in a few years more." His paragraph, when 
stript of its verbosity, is tantamount to this: All bishops 
were originally on a level, but the importance of their 
respective sees gave rise soon to distinctions, which were 
embodied, in a fetv centuries, into honorary titles Patri- 
archs, Primates, and Archbishops, and gained by the con- 
version of Constantino the Great still more worldly con- 
sequence. And about the beginning of the seventh century, the 
Pope^s influence became a legalized usurpation, and \n a 
few years more, an iron supremacy, which was broken by 
the Reformation. 

He that would dispute his neighbor's title-deed must 
show to the full satisfaction of the court, from dates and 
witnesses, clear and respectable, when, how, and by whom 
was his property first invaded, and whether he subse- 
quently made any efforts to recover it, otherwise the 
judgment would be certainly given against him, for there 
is a Rule of Law, " Against him who might decide in 
law, there is a strong presumption."* So should Doctor 
Hopkins, if he expect that any man will believe him, be 
accurate in specifying the time, the manner, the p/ace, 
and the persons that first invaded that democratic equality 
which, he says, prevailed in the primitive ages among the 
Prelates; he should moreover specify what patriot stood 
opposite, what books were written, and noise was made 
against the encroachment. All historians know well the 
rise, progress, dates, and consequences of the usurpations 
of Protestancy in the 16th century, and point out the 

^ CoDtra eum qui legem dicere potuit, apertius est intei-pretatio 
facienda. — De Rcgulis Juris, in 6^. 



136 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

agents, abettors, patrons, and the motives of the whole 
drama. They distinctly specify that all Europe were 
Catholics, in commimion with the Pope of Rome, until the 
year 1515, when Luther^ a Germanic friar, pouted because 
the Pope had not appointed him and his brother friars as 
collectors and receivers of the people's donations to build 
the Church of St. Peter at Rome, and that Luther's follow- 
ers and patrons in German}^ separated themselves from 
the Supreme Pontiff, assuming afterwards the name Prot- 
estants. They also specify that all England were Catho- 
lics, obedient to the Pope, until the year 1533, when Henry 
VIII. bolted, because the Pope would not sanction his 
divorces and marriages. The history of these deserters 
from Christ's fold can be traced in the sacred ruins still 
extant, in the confiscations and proscriptions, and in the 
blood that marked their career. 

Whereas, neither Henry VIII, nor Edward, nor Eliza- 
beth succeeded by his chains, g-ibbets, fines, and praemunire, 
in establishing generally his headship, how had it hap- 
pened that the great nations and emperors of antiquity 
recognized, as soon as they came from the east and the 
west, the north and the south, into the bosom of the 
Church, the Bishop of Rome as Supreme Pastor and Head 
of that Church, particularly as he had not the good things 
of this world to entice, nor the sword of the flesh to en- 
force ? Behold Constantino the Great, Theodosius the 
Great, Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, William the Con- 
queror, the Holy Fathers — Jerome, Ambrose, the Grego- 
ries, Cyprian, Epiphanius, Basil, Augustine, and so forth — 
all Roman Catholics in communion with the See of Rome. 
Were they all fools ? did not any one amongst these con- 
querors of the world understand their right? did they 
blindly succumb to what Doctor Hopkins calls the " legal- 
ized usurpation " of the Bishop of Rome ? did any one 
among them all understand or attempt to break the " iron 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 137 

Supremacy" until the Reformation, until tlie libidinouB 
Henry and the bastard Elizabeth came into existence ? 
But it is remarkable that the very moment they deserted 
the Supreme Pastor, they began to split and quarrel 
amongst themselves ; which splitting and quarreling 
has continued, without ceasing even for one instant, ever 
since, so that no man could|now-a-days count [the sects, 
nor tell the causes of their separation. That all the 
churches of antiquity acknowledged the supremacy of 
the Bishop of Rome, is a historical fact. 



TWELFTH VAGARY. 

Dr. Hopkins' Church of Rome, p. 58, Burlington, Fer- 
ment, 1837, quotes, in defence of his heresies, extracts 
from St. Irenaeus, our holy Father, who flourished in the 
second century, and, with an air of sincerity, he gives said 
extracts in English, Latin, and Greek, saying : ^' We have 
not known the system of our salvation, except by those 
through whom the gospel came to us ; which then truly 
they preached, but afterwards, by the will of God, they 
delivered to us in the Scriptures, to be the pillar and 
ground of our faith. Here, you perceive, Irenseus calls 
the Scriptures the pillar and ground of our faith, and re- 
fers this pillar and ground to the Apostles in general. 
Here, though speaking on the point, there is not a hint 
of Peter's supremacy, although every motive of truth and 
interest should induce Ireneeus to bring it forth, had he 
known of such doctrine. But the third chapter of the 
same book presents a passage, to which you frequently 
refer, and which, therefore, I shall insert at length, that 
its true meaning may be clearly seen." 

By keeping in view the question proposed by the Holy 
Father, namely — Fro7)i whom and in what manner hath the 



138 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

Church received the Gospel ? and how he solves that question 
in the following four chapters, you will at once be able 
to comprehend Dr. Hopkins' foul play, in drawing your 
attention from the question in point, to another that was 
not proposed nor discussed. By so doing he raises dust 
before his readers. They do not know what to think, or 
whither to turn themselves. Now come to see the Holy 
Father's own words. I give the heading of each chapter, 
that the reader may comprehend him the better. 

Irenceus, lib. iii., ch. i. — From whom aTid in what manner hath 
the Church received the Gospel ? 

^' We have not known the order of our salvation from 
others than those through whom the gospel came to 
us, which they truly then preached, but afterwards by 
the will of God they delivered unto us in the Scriptures 
as the future pillar and ground of our faith. For it would 
be blasphemy to say that they preached before they had 
a perfect knowledge, as some persons have the rashness 
to say, boasting that they are amenders of the Apostles. 
After our Lord arose again from the dead, and they re- 
ceived the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon them 
from above, and after they were filled with all knowledge, 
they went forth to the ends of the earth preaching in the 
name of God the salutary doctrine, and announcing 
heavenly peace to men ; all and each of them having 
equally the Gospel of God. Consequently Matthew pub- 
lished the Scriptures in their language for the Hebrews^ 
whilst Peter and Paul preached at Rome and founded the 
Church. But after their demise, Mark, the disciple and 
commentator of Peter, delivered in writing the doctrine 
which was promulgated by Peter. Afterwards John, 
also the disciple of the Lord, who usually sat even in his 
bosom, published the gospel whilst living at Ephesus, 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 139 

Asia. And all of tliem announced unto us one God, the 
Creator of heaven and earth, who had been foretold by 
the law and the prophets, and one Christ, the Son of God, 
to whom if any person assent not, he certainly despises 
the companions of the Lord, or rather Christ, the Lord, 
himself, and despises also the Father, and he is self-con- 
demned, resisting and opposing his own salvation, what 
all heretics do.'- 

Chajp. 2. Heretics obey neither the Scriptures, nor the Traditions. 

'' When they are refuted from the Scripture, they turn 
about to accuse the Scriptures themselves, %s if they are 
not correct nor of any authority ; both because they are 
differently dictated, and because the truth cannot be eli- 
cited from them by those who know not tradition. For 
the truth was not delivered through letters, but by living 
voice : for which cause Paul saith : We speak wisdom 
among the perfect, but not the wisdom of this world. And 
each of them saith that this wisdom is that fiction which 
he hath from himself. And when we provoke the enemies 
of tradition again to the tradition that come from the 
apostles, which hath been preserved in the churches by 
the successions of the priests, they will say that they are 
wiser than not alone the priests, but than the apostles 
also. It happens, therefore, that they consent neither to the 
Scriptures, nor to tradition. Our conflict is against those 
who are, like the snake, slippery, and desirous to coil 
round about. Wherefore we must batter them on all 
sides, to see if we can convert any of them to the truth 
when they are confounded by the battering. For if it be 
not easy to bring a repenting soul once caught in an 
error, it is not totally impossible to shun the error when 
the truth is made manifest." 



140 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 



Chajp. 3. The Tradition of the Apostles y or the Succession of 
Bishops in the Churches down from the Apostles. 

'' We are able to enumerate those who were instituted 
bishops by the Apostles in the churches, and their suc- 
cessors down to our own time. But as it would be te- 
dious in such a work as this to count the successions of 
all the churches, we confound all those heretics by the 
successions of the bishops of that greatest, most ancient, 
and universally known church, founded and organized in 
Rome by the most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, 
which shows^he tradition which it hath received from the 
Apostles, and the faith announced to men, descending 
even unto us. For to this church, on account of the more 
powerful supremacy, it must needs be that every other 
church should resort, that is, those who are the faithful 
round about ; in which church hath been always preserved 
the Apostolical tradition by those round about. 

The blessed Apostles founding and organizing the 
church have delivered to Linus the episcopal dignity of 
governing the church -J^ naming all the bishops who pre- 
sided in succession in the See of Rome up to Eleutherius, 
who was the twelfth, he saith : " Under Clement had 
arisen a serious dissension among the brethren at Corinth: 
the church which is at Rome wrote a very strong letter 
to the Corinthians, bringing them to peace, repairing their 
faith, and enforcing the tradition lately received from the 
Apostles : announcing one Almighty God, Maker of hea- 
ven and earth, the Creator of mankind, who had sent the 
deluge, and who had called Abraham, who had brought 
forth his people out of Egypt, who spoke with Moses, 
who instituted the law and sent the prophets, who pre- 
pared fire for the devil and his angels. That this Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ was announced by the church, 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 141 

those who are desirous of information can learn from the 
Scriptures itself, and can understand the Apostolical tra- 
dition in the church, as this is the most ancient epistle 
for those who in these days teach false doctrine." 

Chajp. 4. The attestation of those who have seen the Apostles ^ in 
regard to the preaching of the truth. 

Whereas, the proofs are so clear that no further in- 
quiry should be made among others for the truth which 
can be easily drawn from the Church, since the Apostles, 
as if bountiful in granting, abundantly conferred upon her 
the whole truth, so that every person, who wishes, may 
draw from her the salutary drink. For she is the gate of 
life ; but all others are thieves and robbers. For which 
reason we ought to shun them ; but we ought to cherish 
and retain the doctrine of the church as the tradition of 
the truth. And if any controversy arise about any ques- 
tion, should not we have recourse to the most ancient 
churches in which the Apostles presided, and draw from 
them in regard to the question in point, the just and pro 
per conclusion. But if the Apostles had never left us 
the Scriptures, should we not follow the order of tradi- 
tion which they had delivered unto those to whom they 
had intrusted the churches ? Faithful to that tradi- 
tion, had several illiterate nations embraced the faith of 
Christ : having, without ink or letters, the sacred science 
imprinted by the Holy Ghost upon their heart, they care- 
fully preserved the ancient tradition, believing in one God, 
Creator of heaven and earth and of all things, through 
Christ Jesus the Son of God, who, through his great love 
for his creatures, condescended to be born of the Virgin." 

That I may conclude : remark that I have inserted in 
full the four chapters of Irenaeus, together with their titles ; 

7* 



142 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

to the effect that the reader may comprehend with facility 
the question proposed by the Holy Father, namely, Frovi 
whom and in ivhat manner hath the Church received the Gospel ? 
The first chapter declares that the faith was first preached 
unto us by word of mouth by the apostles, who afterward, 
by the will of God, delivered it unto us in the Scriptures 
as the future pillar and ground of our faith ; and that it 
would be sinful to say that they preached the Gospel be- 
fore they had a perfect knowledge of it ; and that the 
apostles, after they had received the power of the Holy 
Ghost, and were filled with all knowledge, went forth to 
the ends of the earth, preaching in the name of Christ 
the doctrine of salvation, and peace unto all men. And 
afterwards the Apostles wrote and published, at different 
times and diverse occasions, the Gospel. 

The second chapter declares that the heretics submit 
neither to the Scriptures nor to Tradition ; and that when 
they are confounded from the Scriptures, they turn about 
to impeach the Scriptures with inaccuracy; that the truth 
cannot be elicited from the Scriptures by the persons who 
are ignorant of Tradition ; that the truth was not delivered 
in letters, but by living voices, as the Apostle Paul saith: 
We spake wisdom among the perfect, but not the wisdom 
of this world. And when we provoke the enemies of tra- 
dition to the apostolical tradition preserved in the churches 
by the succession of Clergy, they reply that themselves 
are wiser than those clergy, and even than the Apostles ; 
so that they consent neither to the Scriptures nor to tra- 
dition. 

The third chapter indicates the Tradition of the apos- 
tles, or the Succession of Bishops down from the apostles, 
and saith : that the bishops instituted by the apostles in 
the churches and their successors, up to his own time, 
could be enumerated ; and that the heretics can be con- 
founded by the successions of the bishops of that greatest, 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 143 

most ancient, and universally known Church, founded and 
organized in Rome by the most glorious Apostles Peter 
and Paul ; that it shows the tradition received from the 
Apostles, and the faith which has descended unto us ; 
that to that Church, by reason of its more powerful su" 
premacy, every other church, and the faithful of all nations, 
must, of necessity, have recourse ; because in that Church 
hath been preserved at all times the apostolical tradition. 
And lastly, that the serious dispute at Corinth had been 
quelled by a decree issued by Clement, Bishop of Rome. 

The fourth chapter presents the attestations of those who 
had seen the Apostles, in regard to the preaching of the truth, and 
aflSrms that the proofs are so clear as to render needless 
further inquiry among others for the truth which can be 
easily drawn from the church ; whereas the apostles, rich 
in their bounty, imparted unto her the whole truth, and 
that every person, if willing, may draw from her the 
saving drink ; that she is the gate of life : and that all 
others are thieves and robbers, to be shunned. That we 
should cherish and retain the doctrine of the church as 
the truthful tradition. That if any controversy arise, we 
should have recourse to the most ancient churches in 
which the apostles presided, and draw from them the proper 
solution of the question under dispute. But if the Apos- 
tles had never left us the Scriptures, we should follow the 
tradition which they had delivered unto those to whom 
they had entrusted the churches. Faithful to that tradition, 
had several illiterate nations embraced the Christian re- 
ligion, it being imprinted without ink or letters by the 
Holy Ghost upon their hearts. 

Has not the Holy Father clearly solved the question ? 
We have received the faith by word of mouth from the 
Apostles before they committed it by the will of God to 
writing, that the faith had not been originally delivered 
by letters, but by living voice ; that if the Apostles had 



144 FOUKTEEN VAGARIES 

never left us the holy Scriptures, we are justified in re- 
ceiving the Apostolical traditions from the pastors to 
whom the Apostles had intrusted the churches ; that every 
other church and all nations in the world must draw the 
Apostolical tradition from the Church of Rome, which is 
the most powerful, most ancient, and universally known 
church. 

However, the Protestant prelate has the effrontery to 
say, jpage 59, " Here, though speaking to the very point, 
there is not a hint of Peter's supremacy, although you 
must be well aware that had Irenaeus known of such a 
doctrine, truth and interest would have combined to bring' 
forth a declaration of it." 

It is a glaring falsehood, a shameful perversion of the 
fact, that Irenaeus was speaking about the Papal suprem- 
acy, whereas you see from the foregoing four chapters 
that he was speaking of a subject altogether different; 
that is, From lohom and in what manner hath the church re- 
ceived the gospel ? 

That tlie Bishops of Rome have been at all times since 
the earliest ages acknowledged as the Supreme Pastors 
of the Church ; and that they had always exercised, as of 
divine right, a recognized supremacy over the particular 
churches in the universe, is a fact attested by the annals 
and histories of antiquity. So that it seems needless to 
produce any one of said documents, or to follow up here 
the subject any longer. 

The Church, like the sun, diffuses her rays to the ends 
of the earth; or, like the tree, she expands her branches 
in all directions; or, like the fountain, she discharges her 
streams with overflowing abundance. But if a ray be 
severed from the sun, it becomes darksome ; or, if a branch 
be lopped from the tree, it withers and becomes as fuel for 
the fire; or, if a stream be detached from the fountain, it 
dries up and disappears; while the sun retains its wonted 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 145 

light, the tree its natural strength, and the fountain the 
freshness of its waters. Such was the case with schis- 
matics in all ages, and such will it be till the end of time. 
Let us come to facts. 

It is a historical fact, that Asia, the birth-place of the 
most illustrious saints and luminaries of the world — Basil, 
Gregories, Cyrils, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Athanasius, 
and the rest — abounded for centuries with flourishing 
churches, productive of the richest fruits in the salvation 
of souls. And so had been Africa, the native land of 
Cyprian and Augustin; but in after ages their descend- 
ants, shaking off the Church of Rome, fell under the 
yoke of Turks and Mohammedans, and then they lost both 
the faith and doctrine of the Redeemer, together with 
civil liberty; and, as if pursued still by the wrath of God, 
the same noble countries are ever since infested by hordes 
of Arabs and Hottentots, without any settled homes or 
habitations: wandering half naked, half starved, driving* 
their goats from place to place in the desert, they pitch 
their shabby tents where they are benighted. They pre- 
serve their wretched existence by the goat milk, and the 
pillage of the pilgrims. They are at constant war among 
themselves, and sell the captives at the coast to the slave- 
merchants. Is not the vengeance of God visible there ? 

It is also a historical fact, that the Anglo-Saxons that 
were converted from Paganism by Pope Gregory and St. 
Augustine, and his brother friars, were for nine centuries 
the admiration and envy of all nations ; the shining light 
of the world; free from poverty and misery, having in all 
parts erected, by the bounty and charity of individuals, 
convents for the religious, and hospitals for the widows, 
orphans, the sick, and for the aged. But soon after their 
separation from the communion of the Supreme Pontiff, they 
lost not alone the faith but likewise their civil liberty; 
they fell under the galling yoke of Jews and Fundholders; 



146 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

under a Xatioual Debt that sticks into their inmost heart, 
and that can never be shaken off without some bloody- 
convulsion, by the worn-down, tax-ridden people. Con- 
sidering the alarming symptoms of the body politic, and 
the menacing aspect of foreign countries, it is much to 
be dreaded that the tremendous crisis is not far distant 



THIRTEENTH VAGARY. 

Prim. Creed, p. 62, 1834. — He says, ^' It is well known to 
what an idolatrous extent the veneration entertained for 
the Virgin Mother has been carried, during several centu- 
ries, by the Roman Church : that to this day, in the many 
parts of the world, her images are exhibited, and her al- 
tars thronged with zealous worshipers ; and that even in the 
most solemn forms of their public devotions, prayers and 
supplications are offered to her by the titles of * Queen of 
heaven,' ' Mother of God.' '■ Intercessor, &c. . . . It is 
remarkable that although our Lord has commemorated the 
zeal of John the Baptist, the faith of the Apostles, and the 
devoted tenderness of Mary Magdalene, he has said no- 
thing to warrant any undue exaltation of his Mother . . . 
So far, indeed, is our Lord from manifesting any peculiar 
respect for the Blessed Virgin, that his language to her on 
some occasions would seem expressly designed to be less 
affectionate and respectful than we should have antici- 
pated." 

P. 65. — '* But while, as Protestants, we see and de- 
plore the errors into which the Church of Rome has been 
seduced by a blind adoration of the Virgin Mary, yet we 
should be wanting in justice and in feeling, if we with- 
held from her that honor which is fairly due. The lan- 
guage of the primitive Church was. Let Mary he hmwred 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 14T 

aTid esteemed^ but let Christ be worshiped and adored. It was 
her own prediction, that henceforth all generations should 
call her blessed ; and her cousin Elizabeth was filled with 
the Holy Spirit when she said to her, Blessed art thou 
among women. Still more enlarged is the honor paid to 
her by the angel Gabriel, Hail, thou art highly favored ; 
the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among women. 
Yea, how great was the distinction, how exalted the priv- 
ilege, that, when the fullness of the time was come for 
the Eternal Son of the Father to be united to our nature, 
she alone among the millions of the earth should be se- 
lected as the instrument whereby this wondrous manifest- 
ation should be displayed. Far be it, then, from any 
Christian to refuse honoring her whom the Lord thus hon- 
ored. Well may she be ranked highly in our favor whom 
the Lord thus favored, and most unseemly would it be if 
the Church on earth denied the epithet, * Blessed,^ to her 
who was pronounced blessed by the God of heaven." 

P. 177 and 8. — *^ Li the third place, we may consider the 
communion of the Christian Saint with the spirits of the 
just made perfect, which the ancient fathers believed to be 
one essential part of the expression properly belonging 
to this clause in the Creed — Communion of the Saints. 
Therefore it must follow, that the saints departed did not 
cease to have communion with those who remained." 

Ibid. p. 119. — '* Whilst, as a natural consequence of 
these affections, we may readily admit that we cannot sin 
by offering our prayers, not indeed to the Saints them- 
selves, but to God, that he may enable us to imitate their 
virtues ; and we may well believe that they do assuredly 
offer up their prayers for us to the same God, with a fervor and 
a holy ardor which earth cannot realize." 

Remark. — The Doctor is, in the beginning of that 
lengthy quotation, a daring slanderer ; in the end, a Cath- 



148 FOURTEEN VAGAlilES 

olic. *' It is well known to what an idolatrous extent the 
veneration for the Yirgin Mother has been carried for 
centuries by the Roman Church." Behold the daring 
slander : ** To this day, in many parts, her images are 
exhibited and her altars thronged with zealous worship- 
ers." This sentence is true, in one sense, foul slander 
in another. If he means that the devotees, prostrate on 
their knees before her images or altars, honor her, beg the 
assistance of her prayers, and retain her images as his- 
torical monuments to help their recollections, his sentence 
is, in that sense, true ; but if he means that the devotees 
on bended knees before her images and her altars worship 
her, that is, pay to her divine honors, as they pay to God, 
his sentence is but foul slander. Would it be fair if the 
Catholics say or insinuate that the Protestants in the 
meeting-house in Burlington which Dr. H. calls the 
** Church of St. Paul," come there to worship St. Paul ? 
would it be fair or honest to call them idolaters ? The 
Catholics would never be guilty of slander like that. 

Detraction and Slander seem to be, ever since the 
days of the Duke of Somerset, in the reign of Edward FZ, 
the lot and portion of the Protestant parsons. When he 
was going to plunder the Nuns and the Friars he first gave 
them bad names; he called them ^'idolaters," "image- 
worshipers," &c. He hired every pen, and tongue, and 
pencil to give currency to the calumny ; whilst the de- 
voted victims had no trial, no jury nor advocate to defend 
them. As the modern parsons inherit the Church spoil, so 
the same spirit of slander is faithfully entailed upon them. 
And although the Sectarians at home and abroad, in Europe 
and in America, have long since abjured Edward'' s head- 
ship and religion, although the hatred and quarrels among 
themselves are endless, although they agree not upon any 
one religious tenet, yet they cordially agree and coalesce 
in one thing — in slandering us Catholics, our creed, our 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 149 

rites, and our ceremonies. Detraction and slander is, ac- 
cording to every rule of faith, a deadly sin. 

One of the ten Commandments says, Thou shall not 
kill, and another, Thou shalt not hear false witness against thy 
neighlor. The detractor breaks them both ; he is a mur- 
derer as well as a slanderer. The Scriptures and the 
Holy Fathers say so. 

St. Augustin. ''They sadly deceive themselves who 
imagine that the persons alone are murderers, who kill 
the man with their hands ; and not rather the persons by 
whose counsel, deceit, and exhortation are the people cut 
off. The Jews by no means killed the Lord by their own 
hands, as it is written, John, xviii. 31: It is not lawful for 
us to put any man to death; however, the death of the Lord 
is to them imputed, because they put him to death by 
their tongue, saying. Crucify him ! Crucify him ! Hence 
one evangelist says that the Lord was crucified at the 
third hour, another, at the sixth : because the Jews cruci- 
fied him at the third hour with the tongue, and the soldiers 
at the sixth with their hands. Therefore he who has be- 
trayed God made man, he himself put him to death, the 
Lord testifying, John, xix. 11 : He that delivered me to thee 
hath the greater sin. Hence Ps. Ivi. : The sons of men, whose 
teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 
Therefore let those by whose counsel blood is shed, if 
they desire forgiveness, submit themselves to penance/' 
Adopted in the Decretals, 33, Quest. 3, Dist. 1, ch. 23. 

From this definition of Detraction and Slander, let us 
return to the Doctor. Can he name the Pope, the Council, 
or the Catechism, that teaches the worship or adoration 
of the Blessed Virgin or the saints ? On the contrary: 

Con. TmD. Sess. XXII. ch. 3, De Sacrif Missce. '* And 
although the Church sometimes celebrates some Masses 



150 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

to the honor and remembrance of the Saints, however, she 
teaches not that the sacrifice is offered to them, but to 
God alone, who has crowned them. Hence the priest 
does not usually say, I offer to thee a sacrifice, Peter or 
Paul ; but offering thanks to God for their victories, he 
implores their patronage, that they may deign to intercede 
for us in heaven, of whom we make a commemoration 
upon earth/' 

Mass Book. ^' Communicating with, and honoring the 
memory, in the first place, of the ever-glorious Virgin 
Mary, Mother of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ ; as also 
of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, 
Andrew, &c., and of all thy Saints ; by whose merits and 
prayers grant that we may, in all things, be defended by 
the help of thy protection. Deliver us, O Lord, we beseech 
thee, from all evils, past, present, and to come ; and by 
the intercession of the blessed and ever-glorious Yirgin 
Mary, the Mother of God, and of the holy Apostles, Peter 
and Paul, and of Andrew, and of all the Saints, mercifully 
grant us peace in our days." 

Con. Trid. Sess. XXV. De Invoc. SS. ^^ The holy 
Synod commands all Bishops and others, to whom is en- 
trusted the office of teaching, that, according to the prac- 
tice of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from 
the earliest ages of the Christian Religion, and according 
to the united opinions of the Fathers, and decrees of the 
holy Councils — they, in the first place, diligently instruct 
the faithful on the Intercession and Invocation of Saints, 
the honor due to Relics, and the lawful use of Images ; 
teaching them that the Saints reigning with Christ offer 
up|their prayers to God for men; that it is good and pro- 
fitable suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse 
to their supplications and assistance, in order to obtain 
favors from God through his Son Christ Jesus, Our Lord, 
who is our only Redeemer and Savior." 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 151 

Behold the Catholic doctrine copied by me from the 
Holy Council of Trent and our Missale Romanum — Mass 
Book. If Doctor Hopkins has not these two works in his 
hands or within his reach, he will find the same doctrine 
inculcated in all our Catechisms and Prayer Books; which 
he can borrow from any of his neighboring Catholics. 
There he will meet a wide difierence between our prayers 
to God and to the saints — in the Litany of Jesus and the 
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We say, Jesus, have 
mercy on us. Holy Mary, pray for us. 

He says, '' that the language of the Primitive Church 
was, Let Mary he honored and esteemed , hut let Christ he wor- 
shiped and adored.''^ Yes, it was indeed, and is still the lan- 
guage of our holy Catholic Church. Can he say when, or 
where, or by whom was a contrary doctrine taught or 
received in the Catholic Church. It is needless to pursue 
the question any longer ; it being handled in a masterly 
manner in several of our religious books, in the Catechism 
of the Council of 7rent, and Douay Catechism, approved 
and edited in 1833 by Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, End 
of Controversy, by Doctor Milner, The Faith of Catholics, 
by Berington and Kirk, and others. 

It is generally allowed that not only the Moh that fired 
the Charleston Convent were guilty of arson and sacrilege, 
but also Miss Reed and her accomplices in slandering that 
institution. What motive can Doctor Hopkins have in 
reviving the old calumnies against us ; or has he lately 
leagued with the sectarians who seem bent upon the des- 
truction of all our religious houses in this coimtry ? Far 
am I from suspecting him of any such intentions. It is 
indifierent to the wounded man, whether the wound is in- 
flicted intentionally, or not. 



FOURTEENTH VAGARY. 
** When we say, / helieve the Catholic Church, we mean 
that we believe in the Church of Christ, as Catholic, or 



152 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

universal; not as confined to any particular time and 
place, but as generally diffused, and to be diffused through 
all time and place; not as confined to any particular set 
of doctrines, but as holding the doctrines of Christ set 
forth in Holy Writ, as they are generally understood by 
Christians universally; not as limited to this sect or that 
denomination, but as containing within its bosom all sects 
and denominations who .truly acknowledge Christ as their 
Head, and his Word as their law." Ihid. p. 157. 

This Vagary being the most important, and the last 
to which I will advert, I solicit, more earnestly than usual, 
the reader^s attention. We have seen the Doctor, a little 
while ago, all in tears for the divisions and distractions 
of sectarianism, and for the desolation of Sion, and de- 
claring that there is no chance of effecting Christian unity 
upon earth again, but by retracing their steps back to 
the Primitive Church. This is certainly making no small 
concession. What is it but an open confession that the 
Protestant system is rotten from top to bottom ; that the 
Reformation was but a Deformation of religion, and 
that the Episcopal ministers are all on the wrong track ? 
If he considered himself and his fraternity on the true 
path, he would not propose, for effecting a new reform, 
to go to any point farther back than Luther and Henry 
VIIL; if he looked upon them as true models of imitation, 
he would not think of passing them by for the sake of 
the Primitive Church. 

** We are,'' says he, '' a peaceable people, seeking no 
dissensions, but truly desirous to avoid them whenever 
we may ; we asked no favor but to be tried fairly on our 
own merits ; and to be judged by the only infallible 
standard — the Bible, and the next best guide — the Primi- 
tive Church :" Prim, Ch. p. 297. Why go back to the 
Primitive Church from the blazing stars of the sixteenth 
century, that were to dispel the errors of Popery, and 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 153 

make Protestancy shine from end to end of the world ? 
Alas ! the blazing star of Protestants is not unlike the 
phosphoric lantern in the bogs and swamps at night, 
which, if you pursue, will surely lead you into the fatal 
quagmire. It is written, Prov. xiv. : There is a way that 
seemeth just to a man, but the end thereof leads to death. 
Whether Doctor Hopkins, in his writings and exertions to 
re-establish the Catholic or Primitive Church, be honest 
and sincere, or be an infidel in disguise, is quite indif- 
ferent ; for he certainly will, if successful in his views, 
involve his hearers in a sable cloud of infidelity. This I 
can readily show, if my readers lose not sight of his no- 
tions of a Catholic Church, as given in Vagary XIV. 

The Catholic Church which he contemplates, contains 
within its bosom all persons in the whole world calling 
themselves Christians ; all sects and denominations truly 
acknowledging Christ as their Head, and his word as 
their law. ''Truly to acknowledge Christ as their Head 
and his word as their law," is the only condition he re- 
quires for their being Catholics. No doing, but uTider- 
standing, for him. According to his views, good works, 
the ten commandments, baptism, divine worship, prayer 
faith, hope, and charity, are needless for salvation ; and, of 
course, evil deeds are harmless. The devil believes, and 
trembles ; thieves, robbers, and other malefactors un- 
derstand the law well. All Sectarians, from Joanna 
Southcote down to the Mormonites, say, and perhaps think, 
that they truly acknowledge Christ as their Head, and 
his word as their law ; this is enough to make them mem- 
bers of Doctor Hopkins' Catholic Church. 

But they must hold '' the doctrines of Christ set forth 
in Holy Writ as they are generally understood by Christ- 
ians universally." The Christians in general, that is, 
jpuUic opinion, is the only standard he recognizes to inter- 
pret the doctrines of Christ in the Scripture. He is to be 



154 FOURTEEN VAGARIES 

led by the public opinion : not the public by him : the 
public opinion, not the Protestant bishop, is the teacher 
The Episcopal in America has nothing to do, for knowing 
the doctrines of Christ in Holy Writ, than to learn how 
they are generally understood by Christians universally 
— than to learn the fantastic veerings of public opinion 
from the newspapers and other periodicals. 

Supposing, for argument sake, that the public opinion 
is an infallible standard for the sense of Scripture, how 
is that public opinion ascertained ? Either through some 
public authentic dccmnent, or a personal application to every 
nominal Christian in the universe. Both the one and the 
other is absurd and impracticable. By what public de- 
claration or document would you ascertain how the Scrip- 
tures are understood universally by the different clashing 
sects in and about Burlington, and afterwards by all 
nominal Christians in the world ? No such document is 
or could be extant. 

But let us see if he could gain his point by the per- 
sonal application. He will have to visit every man and 
woman in Christendom — from Labrador to Cape Horn ; 
from the Giant's Causeway to Cape Clear ; from the Ork- 
neys to Land's End ; from Amsterdam to Malta ; from 
Lisbon to Moscow ; the whole extent of Asia, Africa, 
Australia, &c. For certainty, if he would accurately 
know how the doctrines of Christ are generally under- 
stood by Christians universally, he must know the vote 
of every nominal Christian in the universe. What a task ! 
And should his ardent zeal for the peace of Sion carry 
him so far, there would be still another serious difficulty to 
encounter — the foreign languages; for without a thorough 
knowledge thereof, he could not know with precision the 
people's views on the doctrines of Scripture. Therefore 
it is beyond the power of any man in existence to know, 
either by any public document or personal application, the 



OF BISHOP HOPKINS. 155 

opinion of Christians generally on Holy Writ. And when 
Doctor Hopkins holds out a rule of faith that is beyond 
the reach of men, he mingles together in a confused chaos, 
right and wrong, truth and falsehood, demolishes the 
whole Christian religion, and hurls his hearers back again 
into paganism. The Judge on the bench would not say 
that the statutes are to be construed as they are gene- 
rally understood by the people universally, but as they 
are understood by the sage Judges of antiquity. In like 
manner, the Roman Catholic expounds the Scriptures ac- 
cording to the sense which the Holy Roman Catholic 
Church held and holds, and according to the unanimous 
consent of the Holy Fathers. 



156 FIVE HERESIES 



CHAPTER IX. 

FIVE HERESIES BY INNOVATOR I. 

First Heresy. — Innov. saith : ''What will become of 
those who never heard, even could never hear, the name 
of Christ Jesus ? I will answer, according to Catholic 
principles. Such heathens will be condemned by the sins 
which they committed against the law of nature, and not 
for the want of a knowledge of Jesus Christ." 

Does not that one sentence discard the doctrine of 
original sin, divine grace, baptism, the redemption of 
Christ, the Creed, Ten Commandments, both Testaments, 
nay, the whole Christian religion ? Melancholy is the 
state of religion, when such horrid infidelity is openly 
proclaimed by a Deist under the clerical robes to a nu- 
merous flock, who rather look to him for the bread of life, 
for the water flowing from the fountain of the Savior. The 
Lord hath mingled for them the spirit of a deep sleep : 
he has shut up the eyes of their prophets and princes, that 
they see visions ; for wisdom shall perish from their wise 
men, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid : 
Isa. xxix. 

If he really imagine '' that the heathens are condemn- 
ed for their sins against the law of nature, not for want 
of the knowledge of Jesus Christ," it must be his opinion 
that the observance of the natural law alone is sufficient 
for the attainment of eternal life. On the contrary, be- 
hold the Catholic doctrine : 

Original Sin, — Con. Trid. Sess. 5, de peccato originali, 
'' That our Catholic faith, without which it is impossible to 
please God, may, after the extinction of errors, continue in 



BT INNOVATOR I. 15T 

its full and spotless integrity; and that Christian people be 
not carried about with every wind of doctrine, while that 
ancient serpent, the relentless enemy of man, stirs up, 
among the manifold evils disturbing in our times the 
Church of God, both new and old quarrels concerning 
Original Sin and its remedy also; the Holy and General 
Synod in the Holy Ghost lawfully assembled, now mind- 
ing to recall the straying and to confirm the wavering, 
having followed the testimony of the Sacred Scripture, the 
Holy Fathers, and the approved Councils, and the judg- 
ment and consent of the Church itself, decrees, professes, 
and declares thus : 

1. *' If any man confesses not that the first man Adam 
had, by breaking God's commandment in paradise, in- 
stantly lost the sanctity and the justice in which he had 
been created, and by that oifensive transgression incur- 
red the wrath and indignation of God, and, in conse- 
quence, death, which God had previously threatened him, 
and, with death, slavery under him who held henceforward 
dominion over death, that is the devil, and that Adam had, 
by that offence of transgression, been totally changed both 
in body and in soul, into the worse, let him be anathema. 

2. ^' If any person assert that the sin of Adam hurted 
him alone and not his posterity, and that the sanctity re- 
ceived from God and the justice which he lost, he lost 
them to himself alone, and not also to us ; or that he, be- 
ing defiled by the sin of disobedience, had transmitted to 
the whole human race, death, and the penalties of the body 
only, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul, let 
him be anathema ; whereas he contradicts the Apostle, 
saying : By one vian hath sin entered into the world, and hy 
sin death ; and so deaih hath passed unto all men, in whom all 
have sinned. 

3. *^ If any man assert that the sin of Adam, which in 
origin is one, and which, being transfused by propagation 

8 



158 FIVE HERESIES 

not by imitation, to all persons, is proper to each, can be 
reDioved either by the power of human nature, or by any 
other remedy than by the merit of the one Mediator, Christ 
Jesus our Lord, who hath reconciled us in his blood to 
God, became unto us justice, and sanctification, and re- 
demption ; or deny that the said merit of Christ Jesus is 
applied to adults and infants equally by the Sacrament of 
baptism, rightly administered in the form of the Church, 
Jet him be anathema, Ads^ iv. : Because there is no other name 
under heaven given to men wherehy they must he saved. Hence 
the saying of John, 1 : Behold the Lamb of God, hehold him 
who taketh away the sins of the world. And that saying, Gal. 
iii.. As many of you as have been baptized, have put on Christ. ^^ 

Let the above definition of the holy Council sink deep 
into our hearts : That without the Catholic faith it is im- 
possible to please God ; that Adam instantly forfeited, by 
his disobedience in paradise, original sanctity and justice ; 
that he incurred God's anger ; that he fell under the sla- 
very of the devil ; and that his whole nature, both body 
and soul, became corrupted and prone to evil. And that 
Adam^s sin, which is called original sin, is by propagation, 
not by imitation, transmitted to his posterity, to all and 
every one of them. And that that sin cannot be remov- 
ed or forgiven either through the powers of our human 
nature, or by any other remedy than the merit of Christ 
Jesus, applied to our souls by the sacrament of baptism 
rightly administered in the form of the Church. This defi- 
nition of the holy Synod is manifestly impugned by the 
Innovator saying : '' What will become of those who 
never heard, even could never hear the name of Christ ? 
I answer, such heathens will be condemned by the sins 
which they committed against the law of nature, and not 
for want of a knowledge of Christ Jesus." Is he not then 
under an anathema, cast off from the body of Christ ? 



BY INNOVATOR I. 159 

Justification. — Sess, F/., ch. 1. The holy Synod declares, 
first, that for truly and clearly understanding the doctrine 
of Justification, it is necessary for every person to know 
and confess, that when all mankind lost, by Adam's sin, 
innocence, they hecame unclean, and, as the apostle, Ephes. 
ii. 3, saith, by nature children of wrath ; as has been defined 
in the decree on original sin ; they were so far the slaves 
of sin, and under the power of the devil and of death, 
that neither the Gentiles could by the power of nature, 
nor even the Jews by the letter of the law of Moses, rise 
or be therefrom delivered, although free-will had not been 
in them extinct, but rendered prone and straitened. 

Chap. 2. For which cause it came to pass that the 
Heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and God of all 
consolation, when that happy fullness of time came about, 
sent to mankind Christ Jesus, his Son, declared and pro- 
mised by many holy fathers both previous to the law and 
in the time of the law, to redeem the Jews who were un- 
der the law : and that the Gentiles who followed not after 
justice might obtain justice ; and that all people might 
receive the adoption of sons, him God hath proposed to 
be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Rom. iii. : 
for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of 
the whole world. 

Chap. 3. But although he died for all, all persons 
however receive not the benefit of his death, but those 
only to whom the merit of his passion is applied : for cer- 
tainly men would not, had they not been propagated from 
the seed of Adam, be born unjust, inasmuch as by that 
propagation, whilst they are through him conceived, they 
contract self-injustice : so they would never, if not born 
again through Christ, be justified : whereas in that re- 
generation, by the merit of his passion, grace whereby 
they are made just, is to them imparted. For this bless- 
ing, St. Paul, Ooloss. i., exhorts us always to give thanks 



160 FIVE HERESIES 

to the Father, who has rendered us worthy to be partak- 
ers of the lot of the saints of light, and has delivered us 
from the power of darkness, and translated us into the 
kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have re- 
demption and remission of sins. 

Chajp. 4. *' By which words is insinuated a description 
of the justification of the impious, that is, a translation from 
that state in which man is born a son of the first Adam, 
unto the state of grace and adoption of the sons of God, 
Gal. iv., through the second Adam, Christ Jesus our Sa- 
vior ; which translation, after the promulgation of the 
Gospel, certainly cannot be efiected without the laver of 
regeneration, or the desire thereof, as it is written: Un- 
less a man he horn again of water and the Holy Ghost ^ he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of God, 

Chajp. 5. '' It declares, moreover, that the origin of 
that justification is to be taken in adults from the pre- 
venting grace of God through Christ Jesus, that is, from 
his vocation by which they are, without any previous merit 
on their part, called; so that they who were, through sins, 
estranged from God, are, by preventing and helping grace, 
disposed, by freely assenting to and co-operating with 
that grace, to turn to their own justification; so that 
whilst God touches with the grace of the Holy Ghost 
man's heart, man himself, receiving that inspiration, is 
not at all inactive; he certainly has power even to reject 
that inspiration, and he cannot, however, of his own free 
will, without the grace of God, move himself before him 
towards justice. Hence, by the saying in Holy Writ, 
Jac. i., and Joel, ii.. Turn ye to me^ and 1 will turn to you, 
we are reminded of our liberty ; by our answer, Lam. 
Jer. v.. Convert, us to thee, O Lord, and we shall he converted, 
we confess that we are prevented by the grace of God. 

Chajp. 6. ^* But they are towards that justice disposed, 
whilst they, being excited and aided by divine grace, re- 



BY INNOVATOR I. ICl 

ceiving faith from hearing, are freely moved towards God, 
believing the things to be true that are divinely reveal- 
ed and promised; but this, in particular, that the impious 
man is by God justified by his grace, through the re- 
demption which is in Jesus Christ; and whilst under- 
standing themselves to be sinners, by turning from the fear 
of divine justice, with which they are wholesomely seized, 
to the consideration of God's mercy, they are roused into 
hope, expecting that God, for Christ's sake, will be merci- 
ful to them ; and him, as the fountain of all justice, they 
begin to love ; and consequently, they are moved with 
some hatred and detestation tow^ards sin, that is, with 
that penance which should go before baptism; finally, 
they resolve to receive baptism, begin a new life, and 
keep God's commandments. Of this disposition it is 
written, Heb. xi.. He that cometh to God, must believe 
that he is, and is a rewarder of them that seek him. And, 
Matt, ix.. Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
And Eccl. i.. The fear of the Lord driveth out sin. And 
Acts, ii.. Do penance and be baptized, every one of you, in 
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, 
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And 
Matt, xxviii.. Going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you. Finally, 1 Kings, viii.. Pre- 
pare your hearts unto the Lord." 

Chajp. t. This disposition or preparation is followed by 
justification itself, which is not only a remission of sins, 
but also the sanctification and renovation of the inward 
man, by a voluntary receiving of grace and gifts ; where- 
by man, from unjust, becomes just; and from an enemy, a 
friend, so that he is an heir according to the hope of eter- 
nal life. The instrumental cause of justification is the 
Sacrament of Baptism, which is the Sacrament of Faith, 



162 FIVE HERESIES 

without which, justification hath never happened unto any 
man. By the merit of the most holy passion of Christ is 
the charity of God infused by the Holy Ghost into the 
hearts of those who are justified. Consequently man re- 
ceives, through Christ Jesus, in that justification, to- 
gether with the remission of sins, all these things — faith, 
hope, and charity. For faith, if not accompanied by hope 
and charity, neither unites him perfectly with Christ, nor 
makes him a living member of his body. It is therefore 
said: Faith without works is dead and fruitless. Hence 
the saying of Christ, Matt. xix. It: If thou wilt enter into 
life, keep the commandments. Ko man, however justified, 
can deem himself free from the observance of the com- 
mandments. 

Can. 1. If any man will say that a person by his own 
works, which may be performed either through the power 
of human nature, or from the doctrine of the law, apart 
from divine grace through Christ Jesus, can be justified 
before God, let him be anathema. 

Con. Arausican 11. Can. 3. If any man will say that 
the grace of God can, through human invocation, be 
conferred, and that that grace is not the cause why it is 
invoked by us, he contradicts the Prophet and the Apos- 
tle, saying, Rom. x., I was found by them that did not 
seek me ; I appeared openly to them that asked not after 
me. Under Pope Leo. An. 529. 

Can. 7. If any man affirm that he is able from the 
power of nature to conceive or elect any thing good and 
conducive to eternal life, or to assent to the gospel preach- 
ing without the light and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, 
who gives zest to all persons in assenting and believing 
the truth, he is deluded by the spirit of error, not under- 
standing the word of bod, John, xv., Without me you can 
do nothing : 2 Cor. iii., Not that we are sufficient to think 
anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency 
is from God. 



BY INNOVATOR I. 16S 

From the saintly definition of the great councils turn 
again to the impious assertion of the Innovator : ^' What 
will become of those who never heard, never could hear, 
the name of Christ Jesus ? Such heathens will be con- 
demned by the sins which they committed against the 
law of nature, and not for the want of a kjjowledge of 
Christ Jesus." The man that published that notion is 
deluded by the spirit of heresy, not understanding the 
word of God, Johiij xv.. Without me you can do nothing. 
He sets aside the whole Christian religion — the creed, 
commandments, and sacrifice: in vain, then, has our Lord 
sent his Apostles to teach and baptize all nations; in vain 
has the Apostle said : Without faith it is impossible to please 
God ; and again : He that believes not is already condemned. 

Second Heresy. — Innov. 1 saith : '^ Children certainly 
wull be saved ; and adults, if they have sincere sorrow 
for their sins, and sincere love for Jesus Christ." 

*' There is but one baptism, no matter whether it be 
administered by a man or woman ; by a Catholic, heretic, 
or heathen ; all children who are baptized, no matter 
where, or by whom, are members of the Holy Roman 
Catholic Church." 

On the contrary, it is decreed by the Holy Council of 
Trent, Sess. 1, Can. 4 : ''If any man will say that the 
baptism that is given by heretics, in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost, with an in- 
tention of doing what the Church doth, is not a lawful 
baptism, let him be anathema." 

The heretic, therefore, must have for administering 
baptism an intention of doing what the Church doth. Could 
the deserter from the Church, the derider of her doctrine, 
have an intention of doing what she doth in any Sacra- 
ment ? Could the heathens, who know not the Most 



164 FIVE HERESIES 

Blessed Trinity, to whom Christ crucified is a stumbling- 
block and foolishness, 1 Coi\ i. 23, bring themselves to 
baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost ? The holy Synod makes no mention 
of the heathen's baptism, perhaps because they never 
would think of administering baptism under any form 
whatever. But supposing, for argument sake, that the 
heretic has the necessary intention, and that he gives a 
true baptism, it is doubtful whether his baptism has the 
proper effect. 

Pope Leo.y Epist. LXXIX.^ ch. 7. — For those who, being 
not previously baptized, have received baptism from here- 
tics, are to be confirmed by the imposition of hands with the 
invocation of the Holy Ghost, because they had received 
only the form of baptism, not the efifect of sanctification. 
And we promulgate this rule (as you know) to be observed 
in all Churches, that the laver of baptism, when once ap- 
plied, be not violated by repetition ; the Apostle saying, 
Ephes. iv.. One Lord^ one faith, one baptism. The baptism 
of that man must not be rashly renewed, but the sanctifi- 
cation of the Holy Ghost only (as we have already said) 
is to be invoked ; to the effect that what nobody receives 
from the heretic, he may receive it from the Catholic 
Priests. Quoted in the Gratian Decretals, i.. Quest, i., ch. 51. 

B. Augustin De Fide ad Petrum, ch. xxxvi. — Hold thou 
most firmly and thou shalt not at all doubt, that bap- 
tism augments the damnation of those that are baptized 
outside the Church, if they return not to the Church. So 
necessary for salvation is the communion of the ecclesias- 
tical society, that the man is not saved by baptism to 
whom it is not given where it ought to be given. Quoted 
in said Decretals, i. Quest, i., ch. 55. 

Chap, xxxviii. Hold thou most firmly and thou shalt 
not at all doubt, that not alone all pagans, but also 
all Jews, heretics, and schismatics who finish the present 



BY INNOVATOR I. 165 

life outside the Catholic Church, shall go into the eternal 
fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. 

These awful sayings did not originally fall from my 
pen : they are the words of the Holy Fathers founded up- 
on the manifest testimonies of Holy Writ, which are here- 
tofore seen. Prom these awful decrees, and many more of 
the same sort which I, for want of room, omit ; let us 
turn our eyes once more towards the Innovator's blas- 
phemy, ^ Children certainly will be saved ; and adults, if 
they have sincere sorrow for their sins and sincere love 
for Jesus Christ." Although it is written. Without 
faith it is impossible to please God ; and again, With 
the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth we 
confess unto salvation ; he requires not of adults to hold 
faith, either in their heart or mouth, nor perform any good 
work in the whole course of their life. 

Third Heresy. — He saith, '^ Whosoever is baptised, 
is a member of the Church, and will continue in it, till he 
leave it by heresy ; which is an obstinate error against faith. 
The Catechumen, as observes St. Augustine, before they 
are perfectly instructed, entertain sometimes a very erro- 
neous and heretical doctrine, but notwithstanding, they 
are not heretics. Some Catholics may, through igno- 
rance of the doctrine of the Church, believe something 
against it, and notwithstanding they are not heretics." 

'*But suppose there be a heathen," says he, ''per- 
fectly just according to the law of nature, which he has 
strictly observed ; God, who had prepared the good soul, 
(for he could not be good without the grace of God,) 
would finish his work, inspire the mind, and move the 
heart of this man, not so as to make him desire precisely tht 
sacrament of baptism, of which he had no idea, but to supply 
and accomplish whatever he wants to be united to the 
children of God, and, of course, to the Church, although 

8* 



166 FIVE HERESIES 

he would not mention such a name. He would be united 
in charity to the Lord, and to the Church, w^hose Head 
upon earth is the Bishop of Rome ; though he would 
have no idea of such a Bishop or City, he would be a 
member of the Catholic Church ; and consequently^ he 
would be saved." 

A cursory view of that proposition would lead you to 
imagine that the Innovator holds the Catholic Church and 
her doctrine in veneration; but a close reflection shows 
the reverse, and that he is but an infidel and a skeptic 
at heart. He lays it down as a general rule, ''That an 
obstinate error in faith is heresy, and that heresy excludes 
a man from the Catholic Church." From which rule he 
makes two exceptions — first, the Catechumen, previous to 
perfect instruction ^ sometimes entertain a very heretical doc- 
trine without the guilt of heresy." Second, ''some Catho- 
lics may, from ignorance of the Catholic doctrine, believe 
some things against it without the. guilt of heresy." 

Whereas, he specifies not the amount of *' perfect in- 
struction" of the Catechumen, or the ^' sometimes" when 
it may be dispensed with, or that *' every heretical doc- 
trine," which they may entertain without the guilt of 
heresy; w^hereas, he states not what are the ^* some 
things," which some Catholics " may hold against the 
Catholic doctrine, without the guilt of heresy;" whereas, 
he insinuates not the sort of ignorance, and when it would 
occur to the Catechumen or Catholics, to free them from 
the guilt of heresy, his assertion is downright skepti- 
cism. It is substantially this. Obstinate heresy ex- 
cludes a man from the Church, but nobody knows what 
that heresy is, or when it occurs; and, therefore, nobody 
knows who is, or not, in the Church; all religion is to 
go into confusion. 

Does he not open the kingdom of heaven to the hea- 



BY INNOVATOR I. Igf 

thens who neither desired nor received the Sacrament of 
Baptism ; who neither know nor believe the Catholic 
Church, or any other article of the Creed ? does he not 
discard all revealed religion ? On the contrary, the holy 
Council of Trent, Scss. 6, ck. iv., defines, "Justification is a 
translation from the state in which man was born a child 
of the first Adam, into the state of grace, and of adop- 
tion of the sons of God, by the second Adam, Jesus 
Christ our Savior ; which translation cannot be ejected, 
after the gospel is promulgated, without the laver of re- 
generation, or the desire thereof ; as it is written. Unless 
a man be born again, of water and of the Holy Ghost, he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

"A heathen perfectly just according to the law of 
nature," Cornelius, Acts, x, a religious man, and fearing 
God with all his house, giving much alms to the people, 
and always praying, must have been perfectly just ac- 
cording to the law of nature. Notwithstanding, he re- 
ceived orders from heaven to send to the house of the 
tanner, near the seaside, for St. Peter : he will tell him 
what he must do. Read from verse 34 to the end of the 
same chap. x. Had his natural justice, fear of God, 
abundant alms and his continual prayers, been sufficient 
unto salvation, the angel of God, coming in unto him, 
would not have directed him to take one step further, to 
receive the faith and the sacraments from the Apostle. 
What pity that he had not the new light of the modern 
fanatics, that discard the Church, Sacraments, and priest- 
hood altogether, to go and wrestle with heaven by them- 
selves for salvation ; what a pity that he had not a lec- 
ture from our Innovator; he would tell him that he was 
already perfectly just. 

Fourth Heresy.—" This is the Catholic doctrine, but 
for its application to any particular case, or particular 



168 FIVE HERESIES 

individual, I shall not dare to do it ; because I recollect 
the expression of St. Paul, Rom. xiv. : Who art thou, that 
judgest another man^s servant ? To his own master he 
standeth or falleth. Who had the means to be instructed, 
and neglected them ? God knows it. Who has sinfully- 
rejected the doctrine of the Church ? God knows it." 

If he would not take upon himself to say who had the 
means of salvation and sinfully neglected them — who has, 
or has not, culpably rejected the doctrine of the Church, 
he never will know who is, or is not in the fold of Christ; 
who is, or is not a sinner. He cannot, then, impart the 
grace of reconciliation to any sinner whatever ; or he 
must, like the Protestants, give absolution, in general 
terms, to all people, whether they be, or be not sinners. 
Has he, after such declaration, the inconsistency to argue 
or dispute with others for their religious sentiments ? 
According to him, were the Fathers, Popes, and Councils 
wrong in condemning heretics and heresies ; Confessors 
in absolving sinners ; nay, w^e are all wrong in shunning 
fornicators, railers, idolaters, drunkards, and the like ; 
1 Cor. V. 11. How could we shun them, without knowing 
them; and how could we know them without judging them, 
or ascertaining that their deeds are sinful ? According 
to the Innovator, the parent could not chastise his brat, 
nor the teacher punish the truant, nor the judge sentence 
the culprit, nor the officer try the deserter. 

Does he not level all the landmarks between right and 
wrong, justice and injustice, and throw all things, sacred 
and profane, into confusion ? What is his saying but a 
denial of the remission of sins, which is the Novatian 
heresy. 

Con. Tred. Sess. 14, c. 1. — '' The Lord instituted then 
especially the sacrament of penance, when, after his re- 
surrection from the dead, he breathed upon his disciples. 



BY INNOVATOK I. 169 

saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins ye for- 
give, they are forgiven them ; and whose sins ye shall 
retain, they are retained. By a fact so remarkable, and 
words so clear, the Fathers always, unanimously, under- 
stood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins, had 
been, for reconciling the faithful fallen after baptism, 
granted to the Apostles and their lawful successors. And 
the Catholic Church, with great reason, excommunicated 
and condemned, as heretics, the Novatians, formerly deny, 
ing, with obstinacy, the power of remitting sins.'^ 

Chap. 6.—^^ But although the Priest's absolution is a 
dispensation of another's gift, it is not, however, merely a 
naked ministry, either of announcing the Gospel, or de- 
claring that the sins are forgiven ; but a judicial act, 
whereby a sentence is pronounced by him, as a judged 
'' If any man (CW. 9) say that the sacramental absolution 
IS not ^judicial act, but a bare ministry of pronouncing 
and declaring that the sins are remitted for the confessing 
sinner — let him be anathema." 

That the texts, Rom. xiv., and Matt. vii. 1, forbid 
merely rash and irregular judgments, such as the Phari- 
sees, Luke, vii. 33, passed upon the baptist, and the bar- 
barians, Acts, xxxiii., upon the Apostle himself, we know 
from the definitions of St. Augustin and Pojpe Evaristus, 
found among the Sacred Canons. 

B. Augustin, Horn. 50, ch. 12, De Panitentia, saith :— 
^' Many persons are corrected as Peter had been, many 
are tolerated as Judas, many are not known until the 
coming of the Lord, who will reveal the hidden things of 
darkness. We cannot cut off any person from communion 
unless he freely confess his guilt, or he be duly tried and 
convicted by some tribunal, secular or ecclesiastical. To 
this rule St. Paul evidently alludes, saying, 1 Cor. v. 11 : 
But now I have written to you not to keep company, if 
any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covet- 



no FIVE HEKESIES 

ous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an 
extortioner ; with such an one not so much as to eat. 
For what have I to do to judge them that are without ? 
Do not you judge them that are within ? God will judge 
them that are without. Put away the evil from among 
yourselves. From which words it is clear enough that 
wicked persons must not be rashly or indiscriminately, 
but by a fair judgment, put away from the communion 
of the Church. And if they cannot be juridically removed, 
they are like the cockle, to be tolerated until harvest, or 
to remain, like the bad fishes, with the good, until the final 
separation on the shore. 

'* This principle is not opposed to the saying of St. 
Paul, Rom. xiv. 4 : Who art thou that judgest another 
man's servant ? To his own master he standeth or falleth. 
He would not have a man judged upon suspicion, or even 
by an irregular judgment, but rather from the law of God, 
according to the order of the Church, either when he freely 
confesses, or is tried and convicted; otherwise, why did 
he say this ? — If thy brother be named a fornicator, or 
covetous, &c., unless he meant that nomination that is 
preparatory to a judicial trial. Had the bare naming been 
sufficient for passing the judgment, many innocent per- 
sons would, upon false imputations, be convicted." Quoted 
in the Decretals 2, Quest. 1, ch. 18. 

Pojpe Avaristus. — *' The Omnipotent God, to restrain 
hasty judgments among mankind, would not, though all 
things are naked and open to his eyes, judge upon hear- 
say the doings of Sodom, previous to a clear understanding 
of the truth of the report; for he says, I will go down 
and see whether they have done according to the cry that 
has come to me, or whether it be not so, that I may know. 
Gen. xviii. 21. The Almighty, to whom are all things 
manifest, even before they come to pass, instituted that 
and several other inquiries, here for brevity sake omitted. 



BY INNOVATOR I. I'll 

to teach us by example not to be hasty in trying and 
passing sentence, and not to have our ear open to all 
evil stories about others. And the very truth warns us 
against pronouncing hasty, rash, or loose judgments 
Matt.vii.: Judge not thatyou may not be judged, for with 
the judgment you judge, you shall be judged. Man should, 
therefore, be slow in giving ear to evil reports, before 
they be verified. If the Lord^of the universe, although 
previously knowing all things, would not credit or judge 
of the sms of Sodom, whose cry had reached the very 
heavens, until he personally learned from faithful wit- 
nesses the truth of the report, why should not we, frail 
and sinful men, to whom the judgments of God are incom- 
prehensible, observe the same precaution, to judge or con- 
demn no man before a clear and just proof, the Apostle 
plainly saying, Who art thou that judgest another man's 
servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth." 

It is written, Matt, xviii.. If thy brother shall offend 
against thee, go and rebuke him between thee and him 
alone. If he shall hear thee, thou shalt gain thy brother- 
and if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two 
more : that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every 
word may stand; and if he will not hear them, tell the 
Ohurch ; and if he will not hear the Church, let him be 
to thee as the heathen and the publican. And again 
John, XX. 21 : He said therefore to them again • Peace 
be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you 
When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to 
them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall 
torgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall 
retain, they are retained. And again, 1 Cor v It is ab- 
solutely heard that there is fornication among' you and 
such fornication as the like is not among the heathens • 
that one should have his brother's wife. I indeed, absent 
m body but present in spirit, have already judged as 



172 FIVE HERESIES 

though I were present, him that hath so done, in the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In vain has God directed to complain of our offending 
brother to the Church, if the Church is not empowered to 
pass sentence ; in vain has God said to the Apostles and 
their Successors, Whose sins ye forgive, they are for- 
given them, if they have no power from above to judge 
sinners ; in vain has the Apostle judged, in the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the incestuous Corinthian, if he 
had no authority for so doing. In truth, the Innovator 
levels all Christianity to the very ground. 

^' This is the Catholic doctrine, but for its application 
to any particular case, or particular individual, I shall 
not dare to do it." The goodly man abandons the Sacra- 
ment of Penance, and gives to knaves and libertines their 
own way; he gives them the liberty of the jflesh. 

Fifth Heresy. — Inno. 1. saith : '^The infallibility of the 
Pope is not an article of the Catholic faith. — If any one 
should dare say that the infallibility of the Pope is an 
article of faith, he would be immediately condemned as 
a heretic by the Pope himself." 

I cannot conceive the gentleman^s motives for bring- 
ing this subject before the public — a subject, that could 
never be discussed without producing the most perni- 
cious consequences. The Apostle, to explain the Com- 
munion of Saints, or the mutual dependence and connec- 
tion between the head and members of the Mystical Body, 
or Church, takes a comparison from the order of nature, 
from the human body. 1 Cor. xii. 12 : For as the body 
is one, and hath many members ; and all the members of 
the body, whereas they are many, and yet one body. If 
the foot should say, because I am not the hand, I am not 
of the body; is it, therefore, not of the body ? And the eye 



BY INNOVATOR I. 1*73 

cannot say to the hand, I need not thy help ; nor, again, 
the head to the feet, I have no need of you. But God 
hath tempered the body together, giving to that which 
wanted, the more abundant honor, that there might be no 
schism in the body, but that the members might be mu- 
tually careful one for another. And if one member suffer 
anything, all the members suffer with it ; or, if one mem- 
ber glory, all the members rejoice with it. - 

That I may follow up the same simile ; no one of the 
human actions can be ascribed to the members, apart 
from the head, nor to the head, apart from the members. 
As the hands or feet could not move nor act without the 
head, nor the head walk nor work without the hands or 
feet ; so the Head of the Church could not say to the 
members, I have no need of you ; nor could the mem- 
bers say to the Head, we want not your help, we are in- 
fallible without you. As long as the body lives, so long 
will the head live also ; as long as the body is infallible, 
so long must the head be infallible likewise. If the gates 
of hell must not prevail against the Church, they can- 
not prevail against the Head either ; unless a body be 
supposed to exist without a head, which supposition is 
absurd. 

Therefore, as we must, in order to be saved, believe the 
Holy Catholic Churchy and that the gates of hell will not 
prevail against her, until the end of time ; or, in other 
words, that she is infallible ; we must believe in the infalli- 
bility of the Pope also, unless an infallible body could be 
imagined under a fallible head. Hence, it is evident 
how far from the truth is the Innovator, saying, '' If any 
man should dare say that the infallibility of the Pope is 
an article of faith, he would be immediately condemned 
as an heretic by the Pope himself.^^ The Pope never did, 
never could, condemn any person but the transgressors 
of some law or rule. But what law or canon is violated 



174 FIVE HERESIES 

by declaring that the Pope is infallible ? As for me, I 
never heard of the existence of any such law, nor of any 
person condemned as a heretic, by either Council or Pope, 
for declaring that the infallibility of the Pope is an article 
of faith. Whosoever would attempt to investigate the 
principles of action in the human body — would attempt 
to show whether the head, hands, or feet, axe the essen- 
tial organs, would involve himself into questions useless 
difficult, unnecessary ; and whosoever would strive to 
ascertain whether the Pope, or the members of the Fold 
of Christ, be the essential and infallible parts, entangles 
himself into foolish and unlearned questions that beget 
strifes. 

As the integrity of the superior is the salvation of 
the inferiors, the laws and institutions of every Christian 
country tend to engender and foster love and veneration 
towards him ; they shelter and shield him from the base 
attacks and exposure of his people : so solicitous is man- 
kind for the good fame of the ruler, that they allow him 
in all countries privy counselors ; to whom, not to him, 
are imputed the errors of the government ; nay, some 
countries go so far as to decree that the king can do no 
wrong ; that is, that he is infallihh. All this delicacy for 
the character of the ruling power seems to be dictated by 
good sense and sound policy, and built upon the law of 
God — Honor thy father and thy mother. In what civilized 
society has the child impudence to say that his parent is 
fallible, or the pupil, that his master is fallible, or the flock, 
that their pastor is fallible ? If they have such stock of 
impudence, they must, in consistency, go further ; they 
must, to justify their impudence, sift and expose to the 
public gaze all the hidden faults and blemishes of their 
poor father ; they soon lose, in the course of their search- 
ings and exposure, all filial respect, and perhaps incur, 
like Cham, their father^s malediction. While the parents. 



BY INNOVATOR I. 175 

tutors, pastors, magistrates, are sheltered by the piety of 
all good Christians from the brutal attacks of their re- 
spective inferiors, will the Vicar of Jesus Christ meet no 
shelter in the good sense of his own people ? 

The child, servant, and people that are commanded in 
the law to obey and honor their superiors, never stop to 
inquire whether the superiors are infallible; nor do the 
faithful, who are commanded to honor and obey the suc- 
cessor of St. Peter, stop to inquire first into his infalli- 
bility, for they see something like infallibility promised 
to him by the Redeemer, Luke, xxii.: And the Lord said, 
Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, 
that he may sift you as wheat ; hut I have prayed for 
thee, that thy faith fail not, and thou, being converted, con- 
firm thy brethren. Now, connect with this divine pro- 
mise, that St. Peter^s faith shall not fail, the glorious fact, 
that whilst mighty empires rise aloft and soon fall into de- 
cay; whilst dynasties to dynasties succeed, like the rolling 
waves, but again relapse, to rise no more — Pope Pius JX, 
as the 291st successor of St. Peter, is seen on high, like 
the majestic sun at noon, after the passing cloud, diffusing 
the heavenly rays from pole to pole. Is there nothing 
remarkable in this ? The infallibility of the Pope could 
not be questioned, without questioning the infallibility of 
Christ^s promise. Nor was it ever questioned in Christ- 
endom, until the Galileans, being intoxicated, in the year 
1682, with their novel liberties, found themselves obliged, 
in self-justification, to sift and expose the hidden blem- 
ishes of the Father of the faithful. Thus they brought 
contempt upon him and their own religion, thus they spun 
the rope for self-destruction, for soon after the nation dis- 
carded both them and their fallible head. What are the 
Gallican Clergy now ? If the inhabitants of each dio- 
cese in America begin to declare that their respective 
bishop is fallible, take in review his whole life, public and 



1^6 FIVE HERESIES, ETC. 

private, and expose his frailties and inadvertencies to an 
infidel world, what would be the consequences ? If no 
prelate should like to preside over over such flocks; if 
no friend to Christianity should like to hear of such base 
people and corrupt times, would it be too much to expect 
that our holy bishops will not allow the fallibility of the 
Pope to be discussed any longer in the schools, or other- 
wise ? 



HERESIES BY INNOVATOR II. 177 



CHAPTER X. 

HERESIES BY INNOVATOR II. 

He says, *' Faith is the sincere disposition to believe 
all that God has taught. 

''For example : 1st. A person to whom the doctrine 
was never preached, may have the disposition to believe. 
" 2d. A person to whom the doctrine was misrepre- 
sented may be disposed to believe, though he may, from 
being told the Church taught absurdities, and contradic- 
tions, and immoral principles, be disgusted with what he 
was taught were her doctrines, and be without the oppor- 
tunity of correcting them. 

'' 3. A person of weak or perverted intellect may have 
the disposition to believe, and, at the same time, may mis- 
take error for truth." 

" Other instances might be added, in which the disposi- 
tion may exist, but the evidence not be given. None of 
those persons profess the doctrines of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, yet that Church extends to them, as well as 
to those who profess her doctrines, the capacity for salva- 
tion. Therefore she does not confine that capacity to 
tho^se in her external communion." 

Previous to any observations of mine, I shall contrast 
with his notions the doctrine of two holy Fathers. 

St. Augustin, Ser 7)1071 xxx., iii Appendice, saith : '' The 
Scriptures throughout admonishes us to raise up our heart 
from worldly affairs to the pursuits of heaven, wherein is 
the real and never-ending bliss, at which it is certain no 
man can arrive, unless by the faith of the Catholic peace, 
accompanied by the love of God and of his neighbor. 



178 HERESIES BY 

Faith is indispensably essential for all who aim at eternal 
beatitude, as the apostle saith, Heh. x., Without faith it 
is impossible to please God. Wherefore no man can arrive 
at beatitude without pleasing God, and no man can 
please God, but by faith. Faith is the foundation of all 
good things ; faith is the beginning of man's salvation ; 
without it no man can arrive at the fellowship of the sons 
of God, because without it no man can in this world gain 
the grace of justification, nor possess in the next eternal 
life. If any man walk not here by faith, he shall not reach 
the beatific vision of our Lord Christ Jesus. Wherefore 
let every rational soul of proper age learn the Catholic 
faith, especially the Christian teachers of the people, and 
the doctors of the Churches of God, that they be able to 
resist the gainsayers and be of service to the lovers of 
the Catholic truth. For how could any man teach what 
he never learned ? how could he be a pastor, if he know 
not how to feed with the bread of life the flock committed 
to his care ? Let him not be ashamed to learn what he 
does not know, and let him not, when he learn, be slow in 
teaching what he understands. Let each person be con- 
vinced that he must render an account of the talents 
which he had received, to the Lord. Then shall the faith- 
ful servant hear the glorious words, Well done, good and 
faithful servant ; because thou hast been faithful over a few 
things, enter thow into the joy of the Lord. 

Fulgentius, De Incarn. Christi. saith : '' What is man's 
salvation in this life, but faith in God, which worketh by 
charity, as the apostle saith, Ephes. ii. 8 : By grace 
you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves : 
for it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man might 
glory. And because charity must always accompany 
true faith, which, with the help of good works, covers a 
multitude of sins. Wherefore the Doctor of the Gen- 
tiles, lest he would claim any merit, after the praises of 



INNOVATOR II . 179^ 

the faith by which we have been saved gratis, ascribes the 
grace of good works to the divine bounties; he added: for 
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good 
works, in which God hath provided that we should walk/^ 

From this doctrine of the holy Fathers turn back to 
the Innovator's assertion : *' Faith is the sincere disposi- 
tion to believe all that God has taught." 

His heresy is more glaring than that of any heretic 
of antiquity : he requires not of his hearers faith, neither 
in the Unity or Trinity of God, the Incarnation, Death, 
Resurrection, or Ascension of the Son of God ; in any 
article of the Creed ; in divine grace, the sacraments, nor 
in the merit of good works. He requires not of them to 
have^ but to be disposed' to have faith. But we must know 
that the disposition for an undertaking differs from its 
completion. For instance, a man disposed to build him 
a house could not be said to have already finished it ; nor 
could the man determined to travel be said to have arriv- 
ed at his journey's end ; nor could the hungry man be 
said to have got through his dinner. What then could 
you think of the man's religion who saith : Faith is a sin- 
cere disposition to believe all that God hath taught ; or 
in other words : The man who is sincerely disposed to 
believe what God hath taught, has really faith ? 

The three specimen cases which he adduces set his 
infidelity in clearer light still : first, the person to whom 
the doctrine was never preached may have the disposition 
to believe ; second, a person to whom the doctrine was 
misrepresented, may be disposed to believe, though he 
may, from being told that the Church taught absurdities 
and immoral principles, be disgusted with what he was 
taught were her doctrines, and be without an opportunity 
of correcting them ; and third, a person of weak or per- 
verted intellect may have the disposition to believe, and 



180 HEKBSIES BY 

at the same time may mistake error for truth. Wherefore, 
he opens the gates of heaven to the Turks and Heathens, 
to whom the gospel was never preached; to the heretics, 
who reject the truth because it appears to them ridicu- 
lous; and to the simpletons of weak and perverted heart, 
who have no faith at all that avails unto salvation. He 
adds : '' although none of those profess the doctrine of the 
Catholic Church, she extends to them as well as to those 
who profess her doctrine, the capacity of salvation." 

He slanders the Catholic Church, imputes to her laxity 
which she abhors. The perpetual and universal doctrine 
of the Catholic Church contradicts him ; the heavenly zeal 
and charity of the Catholic missionaries, who carry, at 
the risk of their lives, the gospel to the heathen nations 
to whom it had never been preached, contradicts him. The 
descent of Christ Jesus from the bosom of his Father, leav- 
ing at the mountain the ninety-nine sheep, that he might 
search for the stray sheep upon earth, contradicts him. 

*' He says : *^ Although the Church has no means to 
discern whether the individuals be members of her body, 
yet they are a portion of her soul. God, the searcher 
of hearts, discerns them, and grants them the benefit of 
their faith; and though they are not acknowledged mem- 
bers, yet they are truly within the pale of the Church." 

In what Prophet, Apostle, Pope, or Council has he 
met the distinction between the soul and body of the 
Church ? It is a crafty device of the ministers of Satan 
to bewilder poor mortals, by raising dust before their 
eyes and sending them in quest of the invisible and un- 
known thing called the soul of the Church. The Churcli 
hath, in my opinion, no soul but faith, hope, and charity; 
which, whilst they remain hid in the heart, not made 
manifest by words or actions externally before men, can 
avail no man unto salvation; because its written: With 
the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth is 



INNOVATOR II. 181 

confession made unto salvation. And again : Let your 
light shine before men, that the^^, seeing it, may glorify 
your Father who is in heaven. 

'' How shall we draw the bounding line which must 
separate those who stand together; now in infidelity, now 
in heresy, now in Catholicity ? All who live in the pro- 
fession of infidelity are not infidels : all who live in the 
profession of heresy are not heretics : all who live in the 
profession of Catholicity are not Catholics. 

^' We have before seen several grounds of exception 
on one side : there are some upon the other ; and many 
individuals stand upon each of these grounds. We could 
not, therefore, know whom to hate, were there an obliga- 
tion of hatred." 

As he has no bounding line to know that all who live 
in the profession of infidelity are infidels, and all who live 
in the profession of heresy are heretics ; no bounding line 
to discern the believer from the unbeliever, the Catholic 
from the heretic; in vain did the Redeemer send the Apos- 
tles to call the other sheep into the one Fold^ John, x. 16 — to 
make them profess externally the same faith, observe the 
same commandments, and use the same sacraments and 
sacrifice. In vain has he commanded us to hear the 
Church, under pain of being heathens and publicans ; in 
vain have the Apostles, St. Athanasius, and the Nicene 
Council, left us creeds, if we are never bound to profess 
them ; in vain has the Church of Christ bequeathed us, 
in the Corpus Juris Canonici, the Definitions and Decrees 
of her Popes and Councils, with regard to infidels and 
heretics. If he has no bounding line, to know who are 
members of the Catholic Churcli, who are, or not, Catho- 
lics, could not the people turn about, and say to himself, 
we do not know whether you are, or are not, a Catholic ; 
we will follow some other teacher. How palatable it 
must be to infidels, heretics, and schismatics, to hear from 

9 



182 HERESIES BY 

him, that, though they belong not to the body, or external 
communion of the Church, they are a portion of her soul ; 
that God, the searcher of hearts, will render unto them 
the benefit of their faith. Have they not found in him a 
teacher according to their own desires ? 2 Tim. iv. 3. 

It is written : as the pastor is, so the people will be. 
When they see him leveling the fences and making 
mockery of the doctrine that had been originally sown 
and always handed down in the Church of Christ, they 
generally go further, level the remainder of the fences, 
let in the wolves, and discard the careless watchmen 
altogether. I cannot help thinking that if our bishops 
do not speedily bestir themselves, if they stand not op- 
posite and raise up a wall for the house of Israel, the 
deluge of infidelity now rushing in, will wash away all 
things, sacred and profane. Satan never, since the very 
first date of Christianity, assumed as many masks, or 
transformed himself into as many angels of light, as he 
does in our unfortunate days. His ministers, the false 
teachers that swarm all over the country, will not openly 
attack religion; but by intrigue, sophistry, and novel, 
unheard-of terms, they impose upon the unwary and the 
unstable, notions and sentiments destructive of all Christ- 
ianity. Now they teach *^ that the Scripture is to be 
construed as it is generally understood by Christians uni- 
versally," and then, with an air of liberality, that the 
observance of the law of nature alone is sufficient; that 
they, humble, charitable souls, cannot say who is, or is 
not, a sinner; and that what they call Invincible Igno- 
rance of the faith and Divine law, is excusable. 

Invincible Ignorance. — They say, ^'that some Catho- 
lics may, by ignorance of the doctrine of the Church, 
believe some things against it, and be not, however, 
heretics." 



INNOVATOR II. 188 

Ignorance is two-fold — ignorance of the law, and ig- 
norance of the fact. The man, for instance, that wears his 
neighbor's coat, thinking it his own, is said to be igno- 
rant of the fact ; and if he applied reasonable diligence and 
advertence to ascertain if the coat is, in fact, his own 
property, he may, perhaps, be guiltless in the sight of God, 
who has said, Thou shalt not steal, though he remains 
liable to repair the neighbor's wrong. And the man who 
advertently wears his neighbor's coat, not knowing that 
theft is forbidden by the commandments of God, is said 
to be ignorant of the law. 

Authors, if at any time they taught that ignorance 
is excusable, must mean ignorance of the fact, not of the 
law, for it is impossible that any pretender to the Christ- 
ian rules, Scriptures and Tradition, could imagine that 
any man enjoying the light of reason would save his soul, 
if ignorant of the law of God. It is written. If the Mind 
lead the blind, both fall into the pit ; and again. Without faith 
it is impossible to please God ; and again, Unless a man is born 
again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God. 

Remark that eternal perdition is decreed, in general 
terms and without exception, against all ranks and classes 
whatever that have not the faith, or that are blind, or 
that are not baptized. No matter whether they had lost 
the faith, or neglected baptism, or fallen into the spiritual 
blindness through the depravity of their own heart, or 
the ignorance and infidelity of their false teachers. Hence 
follows the axiom in the Canon Law, Lib. 5, Tit. 12, in 
6*^. De Regulis Juris : *'* Ignorance of the fact, not of the 
law, excuses." 

Psalm xxiv. — Show, Lord, thy ways to me and teach 
me thy paths ; direct me in the truth, for thou art my 

L* Ignorantia facti, non juris excusat. ' 



184 HERESIES BY 

God. Remember, Lord, thy bowels of compassion. 
The sins of my youth and my ignorance do not remember. 

Would the Psalmist have so earnestly prayed to God 
to enlighten his mind, and to pardon the sins of his youth 
and his ignorance, had he been of the same way of think- 
ing with the modern Casuists, had he deemed invincible 
ignorance excusable in the sight of God ? 

Luke, xii. 4t. That servant who knew the will of his 
Lord, and prepared not himself, and did not according to 
his will, shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he that 
knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be 
beaten with few stripes. 

Behold it again declared that ignorance of the will of 
God, though it may mitigate, shall not totally extinguish 
the future torments. Christ our Lord, who will render 
unto every man according to his works, will on the last 
day reward the just with everlasting life, and the sinners 
with eternal punishment. Faith, which says so, declares 
also that there are many mansions in the kingdom of 
heaven ; that there are gradations of glory reserved for 
the just, as well as gradations of stripes for the sinners. 
Whether the diminution of the stripes will be in the dreary 
mansions of the damned, where their worm dieth not and 
the fire is not extinguished, or consists in an abridgment of 
confinement in the prisons, where Christ had come and 
preached, 1 Pet. iii. 19, it is not for me to say ; but this I 
am ready to confess, that no ignorance whatever of the 
will of the Lord shall palliate the evil doers from stripes, 
whether they receive them in hell or in purgatory. 

1 Cor. xiv. 37. — If any man seem to be a prophet or 
spiritual, let him know the things that I write to you, 
that they are the commandments of the Lord. But if any 
man know not, he shall not be knoion. 

This text holds out no prospect of any sort for per- 
sons ignorant of the commandments of the Lord ; nor 



INNOVATOR II. 185 

does the text, If you would enter into life, keep the com- 
mandments. 

Rom. X. — I bear them witness that they have a zeal of 
God, but not according to knowledge ; for they, not know- 
ing the justice of God, and seeking to establish their 
own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of God. 
If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and be- 
lieve with thy heart that God hath raised him up from 
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart we 
believe unto justice, but with the mouth is confession 
made unto salvation. Faith cometh by hearing, and hear- 
ing by the word of Christ. But I say, have they not 
heard ? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all 
the earth, and their words into the ends of the whole 
world. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in 
thy heart. 

Verily it would seem that the Apostle had, through 
the spirit of prophecy, seen the spurious Christians of 
the nineteenth century, who, not knowing or caring for 
the justice of God, seek to establish their own; imagining 
that they can, though ignorant of the will of God, and 
unaided by divine grace, procure, by their natural powers, 
eternal salvation. But let us see the train of argument 
he adopts to refute them: first, he declares that without 
faith it is impossible to please God; secondly, that faith, 
if not confessed before men, will not avail to salvation; 
and, thirdly, that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 
by the word of Christ. And lest they set up the plea of 
ignorance, he refutes them, showing from Deut. xxx. 12, 
that the law is not impossible or beyond our abilities, 
but that the word is nigh us, even in our heart and in our 
mouth; and from Psalm xviii., that their sound hath gone 
forth unto all the earth, and their words unto the ends of 
the whole world. The heavens show forth the glory of 
God, and the firmament that declareth the works of his 



186 HERESIES BY 

hands. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto 
night showeth knowledge. There are no speeches nor 
languages where their voices are not heard. The rocks 
split, the earth shook and sent forth from her bosom the 
bodies of the saints, who came into the Holy City and 
appeared to many. The sun was darkened, and the veil 
of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. 

Now, whereas the word is nigh unto thee, even in thy 
heart and in thy mouth ; whereas their sound went forth 
into all the earth ; whereas there are neither languages 
nor people where their voices are not heard ; finally, 
whereas the very elements and all inanimate nature — the 
sun, the rocks, the earth, and the temple veil, proclaimed 
the divinity of Christ crucified, is it not horrid blasphemy, 
to think or say that any sane adult could be invincibly 
ignorant of the faith or law^ of God : especially as it is 
written, John, i. 9, that Christ the true light enlighteneth 
every man that cometh into the world ? 

If justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain : 
Gal. ii. 21 : if ignorance of the law of God be harmless, 
then our faith is vain, and our preaching vain ; for the 
Heathens, Turks, Jews, and heretics, that have followed 
the will of the flesh and the will of man, not the will of 
God or of the Church, make a better choice than the 
martyrs who have washed their robes in the blood of the 
Lamb, or the prudent virgins who with shining lamps 
entered into the marriage feast, or the confessors that 
denied not Christ before men. If fidelity to the law of 
nature and ignorance of the law of God be a shelter to 
any man, they would certainly save Cornelius the centu- 
rion, Acts, X., ^ religious man and fearing Gody icith all his 
house ^ giving much alms to the people, and praying always to 
God. Yet he had to receive the faith by hearing from the 
lips of St. Peter. Whilst Peter, verse 44, was yet speak- 
ing these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that 
heard the word. 



INN OV ATO R II . 18T 

If fidelity to the law of nature or ignorance of the law 
of God would justify any man, they certainly should jus- 
tify the Apostle Paul, than whom no man could be more 
faithful to the dictates of the natural law and to the rites 
and traditions of his Fathers. Phil. iii. 4 : If any other, 
says he, thinketh he may have confidence in the flesh, I 
more, being circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of 
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the He- 
brews, according to the law a Pharisee, according to zeal, 
persecuting the Church of God ; according to the justice 
that is in the law, conversing without blame. I count 
all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of 
Christ Jesus my Lord, and count all things but dung that 
I may gain Christ. 

Observe his claims : he was circumcised the eighth 
day; he was descended from the chosen people of God ; 
he was zealous for tlie traditions of his fathers; he lived 
according to the justice that is in the law without blame; 
however, he counted all these claims to be but dung in 
comparison with the excellent knowledge of Christ. And 
again he says, 1 Tim. i. 15 : Christ came into this world 
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief ; for this cause 
have I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might 
show forth all patience. Had the sins which he had com- 
mitted ignorantly in unbelief been excusable, would he 
deem himself the chief of sinners, or consider his vocation 
to the excellent knowledge of Christ an act of grace or 
mercy, but rather an act of justice ? 

Again, the same Apostle, rebuking the Galatians, says, 
I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that 
called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, 
which is not another, only there are some that trouble 
you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you be- 
sides that which we have preached to you, let him be 



188 HERESIES BY 

anathema. As we said before, so now I say again, if any 
man preach to you a gospel besides that which you have 
received, let him be anathema. Observe that he repeats 
the anathema against the false teachers, that merely per- 
vert the gospel, or teach a gospel besides the gospel 
which they had received from the apostles. What anathe- 
mas would he not then hurl into the face of the modern 
Casuists, who not only pervert, but reject the gospels by 
wholesale, asserting that the people who never heard of 
the name of Christ, nor of the Christian religion, are in 
the path of salvation. 

Christ our Lord, in his commission to the Apostles, 
said. Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you. And the Acts of the Apostles, as well 
as all Ecclesiastical History, declares how faithfully had 
the Apostles and Apostolic missionaries of antiquity ful- 
filled their commission, in abandoning their native land, 
crossing the stormy seas, and commingling with barbar- 
ous nations, for the purpose of carrying the light of the 
gospel to the gentiles that were involved in the shadow 
of death. 

Would the Word have been made flesh and dwelt 
amongst us, teaching for thirty-three years, by word and 
example, what faith we should hold, what commandments 
we should follow, what sacraments we should use, and 
what future things we should hope for, if the Gentiles 
under the law of nature, or the Jews under the law of 
Moses, were justified ? would the missionaries of ancient 
and modern times take all the pains that they do, in con- 
veying the light of the Gospel to the heathen nations, if 
invincible ignorance were excusable ? 

What an expeditious mode have the wolves in sheep's 
clothing, the false teachers that were to rise up about 



INNOVATOR II. 189 

the end of the world, adopted for discarding Christianity! 
Forsooth, 'Hhe people that never heard,'^ they say, ''of the 
name of Christ, or his Church, or of the Commandments, 
or Sacraments, or of the sacrifice of the New Law, are 
saved by their invincible ignorance." Him that pulleth 
down the fence the serpent will bite. The hearers, when 
thoroughly convinced that ignorance of the law of God 
and of the Catholic doctrine is harmless, will, there is no 
doubt, throw Christianity and priesthood overboard. 

It is an article of faith, that as by one man sin hath 
entered into this world, and by sin death : and so death 
passed upon all men in whom all have sinned, Rom. v. 12. 
It is another article of faith, that the sins of the father 
are visited on his children to the third and fourth gene- 
ration. It may appear to the unbeliever unjust that all 
men should be pursued with death and original sin for 
the transgression of his first parent in paradise, in which 
he had no part nor knowledge ; or that the children 
should, to the third and fourth generation, suffer for the 
sins of their father, in the commission of which they had 
no hand nor part. How inscrutable are the decrees of 
Providence I Hear the holy Father. 

St. Jerome against the Pelagians, Book 1, ch. 10, saith: 
^' The whole range of the Scriptures declares that igno- 
rance is a sin : Job, i., offers sacrifices for his children, lest 
they might have through ignorance sinned. And again 
Deut. xix., the man chopping in the wood, if his axe 
accidentally start from the handle and kill a neighbor, is, 
however, commanded to retire to the city of refuge, and 
there to remain until the High Priest come, that is, the 
Savior of men ; until he will be redeemed by his blood. 
But you may say. Is it just that I would be charged with 
the sin in the commission of which I had no part nor 
knowledge, of which I was totally ignorant. What more 
should I do for a sin willfully committed by me ? Do you 

9* 



190 HERESIES, ETC. 

want to know from me the causes and motives of the de- 
crees of Providence ? Let the wise man answer your ques- 
tion, Eecl. iii. 22 : Seek not the things that are too high 
for thee, search not the things above thy ability ; but the 
things that God hath commanded, think of them always, 
and in many of his works be not curious : for it is not 
necessary for thee to see with thy eyes those things that 
are hid. Wisd. i. 1 : Seek the Lord in simplicity of heart. 
And should you contradict that book, hear the apostle 
sounding the evangelical trumpet, Rom. xi. 33 : the 
depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge 
of God ! Hovv^ incomprehensible are his judgments and 
how unsearchable are his ways ! For who hath known 
the mind of the Lord ? or who hath been his counselor ? 
2 Tim. ii. 23 : Avoid foolish and unlearned questions 
knowing that they beget strife. 



FOUR HERESIES, ETC. 191 



CHAPTER XI. 

FOUR HERESIES BY INNOVATOR III. 

Before I introduce any of these Heresies, I shall offer 
some observations on the Canon Law. The body of the 
Canon Law — Corpus Juris Canonici^ corrected, and illus- 
trated with Notes, by Pojpe Gregory XIII. ^ consists of six 
collections : 

1. The Gratian Decretal, a compilation made of the 
decrees of the general Councils, and of the Supreme Pon- 
tiffs, by Gratian, a Benedictine monk, in Tuscany, in the 
year 1151. 

2. The Gregorian Decretals, a collection consisting of 
five books, made by the order of Pope Gregory IX., by 
St. Raymond of Penefort, and other learned delegates, in 
the year 1230. 

3. The collection called the Sixth Book of the Decre 
tals, was made from the Rescripts and Constitutions of 
various Popes and Councils, by Pope Boniface VIII., in 
the year 1299. 

4. The collection called Clementine Decretals, con- 
sisting of five books, was made by Pope Clement V., sub- 
sequent to the general Council of Vienna, in the year 1311. 

6. The Extravagantes, or Decrees that wandered, as 
if outside the body of the Canons, just as the Novelise of 
the Justinian Code, (see Gratian^ Dist. xix., ch, 1,) were 
collected into five books by Pope John XXII., in the year 
1330; and, 

6. The collection styled the Seventh Book of the De- 
cretals, was made by Pope Sextus V. in the year 1588. 



192 FOUR HERESIES 

Gratian applied himself, in his collection, chiefly to 
examine what might be said for or against certain ques- 
tions which he proposed, and thus has he reconciled Can- 
ons which had previously appeared contradictory. What 
an arduous undertaking for one man I So highly appre- 
ciated is his compilation, that it is preferred before all 
others throughout Christendom. 

Pius IV. J Pius F., and Gregory XIII. ^ had carefully 
revised and corrected Gratian's collection, purging away 
whatever typographical errors or misquotations had crept 
in through the inadvertence of Gratian himself, or of 
the editors. For effecting this purpose were the libraries 
of the Vatican and Dominican Monastery in Rome, and 
several others, rummaged for the ancient copies and docu- 
ments; learned men were invited from other cities and 
countries for the purpose of imparting to the Pope inform- 
ation on the subject. By this wise process — by allotting 
to each individual the circle of his inquiry, it was readily 
ascertained what were the decrees and definitions of the 
general and provincial Councils, and of the Supreme Pon- 
tiffs, and of the Holy Fathers; the Canons approbated by 
the Holy See are selected ; the genuine distinguished 
from the spurious, the authentic from the doubtful. Pre- 
face of the Corpus Juris. 

The foundation of the Body of the Canons; its weight 
and authority, is better understood from the Pope's Bulls 
of approbation. 

Greg. XIII, cum pro munere. Impelled by our pastoral 
duty, especial in these doleful and alarming times, to 
strive to keep the faithful of Christ in the true and 
Catholic religion, and to remove all occasions of straying 
therefrom, we have for the attainment of that end given 
in charge long since unto some of our brethren the Car- 
dinals of the Holy Roman Church, having procured for 
their assistance other persons of known piety and learn- 



BY INNOVATOR III. 193 

ing, to correct and purge the Gratian Decretals without 
the gloss, and likewise the Decretals of Gregory IX., 
our predecessor, of happy memory, the Sextine, Clemen- 
tine, and the Extravagantes, together with the ancient 
authors of the gloss, who are, as being pious and Catho- 
lic persons, to be forgiven, if peradventure they, either 
from error or because the matters were not yet defined by 
the sacred Councils, expressed themselves in said glosses 
anywise unguardedly; also together with any matters 
contrary to the Catholic doctrine, that might have been 
foisted into the text or margin by any impious heretics. 
And whereas the Decretal without a gloss is now totally 
amended and corrected by our aforesaid Delegates and 
illustrated with notes, and the greater part thereof, to- 
gether with the said Decretal of Gregory IX., of happy 
memory, are already printed, after having been revised 
and approved by our beloved son, Paul Constabili, master 
of our aforesaid apostolical palace. And the remainder 
of said Decretal with said notes, both without a gloss, 
and the whole work itself with a gloss, and the afore- 
said Sextine, Clementines, and Extravagantes — the whole 
we have again ordered to be printed and edited from the 
Roman press, under the revision and inspection of our 
beloved son, Sextus Eaber, master of our aforesaid apos- 
tolical palace ; to the purpose that this body of the Canon 
Law be, for the 'greater utility of the faithful of Christ 
residing within and without Italy, throughout the whole 
world, faithfully and accurately printed, according to the 
copy here edited in Rome. We, being anxious that this 
Body of the Canon Law do reach, thus sheltered and 
fenced in, all the faithful of Christ everywhere, and that no 
person have power to add to the work anything, take 
from, or alter therein, or affix thereto any comments, and 
that it be for ever preserved entire and genuine, as now 
edited here in Rome, do freely and from the plenitude of 



194 FOUR HERESIES 

our apostolic authority, prohibit and forbid by these pres- 
ents, all and singular persons, natives and aliens, residing 
in the Roman territory, also editors and booksellers every- 
where, and librarians, and all other persons whatever, 
of both sexes, what dignity, state, degree, order, or con- 
dition soever they be of, in virtue of holy obedience, under 
the major excommunication, latm sententice^ that the same 
Gratian Decretal, without gloss, the Gregorian Decretal, 
the Sextine, Clementine, and the Extragavantes afore- 
said, be for ten years from the date hereof, published under 
any title anywhere but in our city pf Rome, and in the 
aforesaid press of the Roman people. Given at Rome, 
in St. Peter, under the ring of the Fisherman, July 1, 
1580, the ninth year of our Pontificate. 

Greg. XIII. To the faithful of Christ, whom the present 
may reach, health and apostolical benediction. The 
emendation of the decrees and quotations compiled by 
Gratian, (for they abounded with blemishes and misquo- 
tations,) undertaken after mature deliberation by some of 
our predecessors the Supreme Pontiffs ; entrusted to some 
select Cardinals and others of known piety and learning, 
and hitherto delayed through a variety of obstacles, but 
now at last, after having rummaged from all quarters the 
most ancient copies and examined the original authors, 
which were adduced by Gratian, and restored to their 
proper places whatever passages had been misplaced, 
being with great diligence concluded and brought to per- 
fection. We command that all the amendments and ar- 
rangements now made be retained, in so much that not 
one particle be added to, altered in, or taken therefrom. 
Given in Rome, under the ring of the Fisherman, 2d June, 
1582, and the 11th year of our Pontificate. 

Recollect that the Pontiff, being fully sensible of the 
weight and importance of the pastoral oflSce, especially 
in these melancholy and calamitous times, looked upon 



BY INNOVATOR III. 195 

the Canon Law as the best means for keeping the faithful 
of Christ in the true Catholic faith : and that therefore 
he delegated a number of Cardinals and other persons of 
known learning and piety to revise and correct the Gra- 
tian Decretal, the Gregorian, Sextine, the Clementine, and 
Extravagantes, together with the gloss, declares that the 
body of the canons thus revised, corrected, and illustrated 
with valuable notes by said delegates, was carefully edited 
under the inspection of the master of the sacred palace 
at the Vatican press. And for the preservation of the 
work in its integrity and authenticity, he forbids, under 
pain of the greater excommunication, i'pso facto, to print, 
publish, or circulate for the space of ten years after date, 
any other edition or copy of the body of the Canon Law,' 
under any title or name whatever. 

The Holy Pontiff, in the second Bull, shelters and 
verifies the Gratian Decretal alone ; seeing it perhaps 
then more furiously assailed than any other collection of 
the canons ; or perhaps foreseeing, through the spirit of 
prophesy, the glaring contempt shown to it in these 
latter days. He declares that the committee of learned 
dignitaries, who were charged with the revision and cor- 
rection of the work, had rummaged all libraries at home 
and abroad for the ancient copies, both printed and MS. ; 
that by collating with these copies the quotations and 
authorities cited in Gratian, they were able to rectify 
whatever blemishes or inadvertencies previously existed 
in the work. And he concludes with positive orders that 
the amendments and arrangements made in the work by 
said committee be for ever retained without the least 
alteration, addition, or diminution. 

Whereas an accurate catalogue of the ancient copies, 
and authors, and versions used by the compilers and re- 
visers of the Canon Law is invariably prefixt to every 
new edition of the Corpus Juris Canonici throughout the 



196 FOUR HERESIES 

world, every learned reader has it in his power to test 
the fidelity of the work. And whereas said body of the 
S. Canons is extant under every shape, and form, and 
size — folio, quarto, and duodecimo, in all Christian coun- 
tries, highly appreciated by each pious pastor and honest 
civilian, it could not be altered or corrupted without de- 
tection, unless the Popes, Bishops, and the learned in the 
whole world fell asleep, or became recreant to God and 
his Church. 

Remark, further, as the body of the Sacred Canons 
consists not of the sayings and decisions of the compilers, 
but of the Popes, Councils, and holy Fathers of antiquity; 
to slight or discard it, what is it but to reject all Church 
authority, as the deists and atheists do ? If the article 
in the Creed — I believe the Catholic Chiirch — has any mean- 
ing, it must be this : '' I hold, profess, obey the laws of 
the Catholic Church.^^ But the Catholic Church has her 
laws and ordinances collected together in the body of the 
Sacred Canons, and no where else; therefore, if you reject 
or discredit that body, your promise of obedience to the 
Catholic Church is mere mockery. 

You have sworn at your consecration to the Creed of 
Po^pePius lY.: — '^ I likewise undoubtedly receive and pro- 
fess all other things ' delivered, defined, and declared by 
the sacred Canons and general Councils, and especially by 
the holy Council of Trent.' But where are found the things 
delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons and 
general Councils, if not in the authorized Body of the 
Canon Law ? 

But, to our astonishment, some persons imagine " that 
the living voice of the bishops in being, is a sufficient sub- 
stitute for the ancient Canons, which are grown obsolete." 

This could not be : the Church never intended that it 
should be. Had she intended it, why require of the bishops 
themselves and of us all to swear — '' I likewise undoubt- 



BY INNOVATOR III. 19T 

edly receive and profess all other things delivered, de- 
fined, and declared by the sacred Canons and general 
Councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent ?" 
We are not, remark it, required to swear — I hold and pro- 
fess the sayings and definitions of the bishops in being. 
Supposing, for argument sake, that the living voice of the 
bishops be deemed a sufficient guide in religious matters, 
by what process could that living voice be ascertained, 
or unity of sentiments preserved among the bishops ? If 
it be imagined that the living voice of the bishop be suf- 
ficient guide, the Clergy of each diocese need no longer 
trouble their brain and endanger their health in poring 
over the Bible, sacred canons, holy Fathers, or books of 
divinity; they have nothing to do, but to watch the veer- 
ing of the wind about the cathedral and work their way by 
sycophany. If it be imagined that the body of the sacred 
Canons is but a useless piece of furniture, now grown ob- 
solete ; that there are no such things as laws and canons to 
be observed in the Catholic Church ; that the will of each 
bishop is a sufficient guide ; is your condition one jot supe- 
rior to that of the Sectarians ? 

Thus premising, let us come to the consideration of 
the man's heresies. 

First Heresy. — He says: ''The use of such documents 
as have the sanction of the Church is certainly allowable, 
provided, however, they receive only the degree of au- 
thority which she ascribes to them ; but as the body of 
the Canon law, especially that part styled the Decree of 
Gratian, has received no solemn sanction, no weight can 
be given to passages extracted therefrom, beyond what 
the documents to which it refers may intrinsically possess 
or derive from the usages of the Church." 

Why should he assert what is contrary to the fact ? 
We have seen in the premises that it was revised, cor- 



198 FOUR HERESIES 

reeled, and solemnly edited hjPius IV., Pius V., and Gre- 
gory XIII., and, besides, that the different collections bear 
the approbation of the Popes by whom they were made ; 
moreover, it is current these three hundred years under 
the sanction of the Holy See and all the bishops in Christ- 
endom, and made the basis of all their decrees by the 
subsequent Councils. If this does not amount to a solemn 
sanction of that body, we cannot say that any work in 
the Church is rightly sanctioned. 

Pope Gregory Z, Ihm, iv., Epist. xxiv., saith : I confess 
that I receive and venerate as the four books of the gos- 
pel, the four Councils, to wit, that of Nice, in which the 
perverse dogma of Arius is quashed, the Council of Con- 
stantinople, in which the error of Eunomius and Mace- 
donius is condemned, the first Council of Ephesis, in which 
the iniquity of Nestorius is shattered, and the Council of 
Chalcedon, in which the pravity of Euchites and Dios- 
carus is reprobated ; them with all devotion I embrace, 
with full approbation I preserve : because upon them, as 
upon a square rock, the holy fabric of the faith rises up, 
and upon them the form of every course of life and action 
stands. Whosoever holds not their solidity, even if he be 
considered a stone, is, however, outside the edifice. Who- 
soever thinks contrary to said Councils, let him be anathe- 
ma : and whosoever holds the faith of the aforesaid Coun- 
cils, peace be to him from God the Father through Christ 
Jesus, his Son, who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

Wherefore Gregory the Great paid the same venera- 
tion to the four general Councils, that he did to the four 
books of the gospel. And justly: if their sacred definitions 
be laid aside, nobody could say what faith came from the 
Apostles, nor authenticate nor comprehend the Sacred 
Volume ; he excels, in veneration towards them, our In- 
novator. As the Innovator swears obedience to the 



BY INNOVATOR III. 199 

Catholic Church, and to hold and profess all things de- 
livered, defined, and declared by the Sacred Canon q and 
general Councils, and particularly by t^ 
Trent, where are those Sacred ^ 

cils, which he swears to obs' 3 

are extant than those wh* of 

the Canon Law, whi'^l^ .q j 

When he rejects th _ ^^^^^^ the 

Church without any and a Church with- 

out laws to guide and _ members could not be 

called a Church, but an assemblage of barbarians, huddled 
together by some selfish motives, perhaps by the love of 
money, and liable, like a sand-bank, to be blown by the 
first breeze in all directions. 

Although the Innovator may deem himself a luminary, 
I am sorry to think that his fell swoop of the Canons is 
calculated to produce baneful effects of which he is not 
aware, and which perhaps he does not intend. The 
students in the colleges, when they read or hear of his un- 
qualified censures of the Sacred Canons, may, without 
consultation or reflection, throw away their books of the- 
ology, which are principally founded upon said Canons ; 
and when they will come on the mission, they will have 
neither Canons nor books of divinity to guide them: what 
will they do ? They may, like the aliens, imagine that 
the Bible alone is a sufficient guide. But it is impossible 
to comprehend that Bible apart from the interpretations 
of the Sacred Councils and holy Fathers which they had 
discarded. They have overstepped the fences that were set 
up by their fathers, they have thrown aside the laws of the 
Church and, of course, the Church itself. They are on the 
wide world, without any rules to distinguish right from 
wrong, truth from falsehood. What will the poor persons 
do ? Perhaps they will conform to the desires of the people, 
and be converted to fables; they are in danger of falling 
into indifference and infidelity. 



200 FOUR HERESIES 

Wherefore, if we would perpetuate the Catholic Church 
in fi---- ^+*ites, we must speedily strive to return to the 
'-^ : set up, as in the good old Catholic 
■ ■^"'inaries, chairs for the Canon 

j he Body of the Canon Law 

a ^^ur on, by word and ex- 

aL 've them in practice. 

I set. x^v. . for the preservation 

of our Catholic laxt help ; we are helpers 

of God ; man waters .. ^ant, God gives the in- 

crease. Who knows but Clirist u esus would in his mercy 
look upon us, and kindle in our heart some spark of his 
divine love, and enable us to preserve unto posterity that 
heavenly Deposit that was handed down to us by our 
pious fathers. 

However, strange to say, the Innovator strives to 
fortify his attack upon the Canon Law by a marginal 
note from Devoti^s work; but when his note is given in 
full, it is seen that he and our Innovator is at variance. 

Devoti. — Devoti, speaking of the Gratian Decretal, 
says, *' All the quotations given by him command the 
same respect that they would otherwise and apart from 
the Decretal : thus the Scripture texts, and the decrees 
of the Supreme Pontiffs, and the General Councils, retain 
in the Decretals, the same weight which they previously 
had of themselves and from their own nature ; whilst the 
other authorities, when transferred into the Decretal, ac- 
quire not any importance which they possessed not natu- 
rally of themselves. Some persons imagine that the 
Gratian Decretal has received the approbation and pub- 
lic sanction of Pope Eugene III. ; but their opinion stands 
upon no solid foundation ; the Decretal had never been 
sanctioned by the Holy See.'' 

Like all levelers and reformers, Devoti and his disci- 



BY INNOVATOR III. 201 

pies already begin to mend and reform the writings of 
each other. Devoti would only say that the Gratian De- 
cretal had never been sanctioned by the Holy See ; the 
Innovator goes farther, saying that the body of the canon 
law, especially the Gratian Decree, has never received 
any solemn sanction. The one levels but a part— the 
Gratian Decretal ; the other pulls down the whole edifice 
of the Sacred Canons, especially the Decree of Gratian. 
And indeed the Innovator is more consistent in error than 
Devoti, for the Gratian Decretal is the basis of all the 
canon law ; the authority that is quoted and followed in 
every decree and definition by the Holy Council of Trent 
and every other Council. 

Devoti^s paragraph consists of a falsehood and an 
absurdity : '' The Gratian Decretal has never been sanc- 
tioned by the Holy See.^' Behold the falsehood. We 
have seen it sanctioned, corrected, and recommended in 
various Bulls by Pope Gregory XIII. ; it is quoted and 
referred to in almost every page of our books of theology, 
and made the basis of solemn decrees on faith and morals 
by the Popes and General Councils. Do not these unde- 
niable facts indicate the solemn sanction of the Holy See ? 

'' The texts of Scripture and the decrees of the Popes 
and Councils, when transferred into Gratian, retain the 
same weight and authority which they previously had." 
Behold the absurdity. The man who would attempt to 
prove that the divine seed retains, after being sown in 
the tillage, its innate goodness and virtue, w^ould find 
himself engaged in a foolish, needless task ; and so 
the man who would assert that the texts of Scripture 
when brought into the sermon, canon, or pastoral, retain 
their native force and weight, but acquire no more, has 
but to cull by some chemical process said texts out of the 
said sermon, canon, and pastoral, and then to throw these 
documents, as being but useless lumber, into the fire. 



202 FOUR HERESIES 

What would the Casuist himself think, if his flock, play- 
ing his own notions upon him back, were to say : The 
texts from Scripture and the decrees of Councils, which 
you quote in your sermons and writings, maintain, when 
thus transplanted, the same weight and authority which 
they previously had, and no more ; and your writings and 
sermons have never received any solemn sanction from 
the Holy See ? Who sees not that foul exhalations from 
Devoti's school immediately tend to level all the laws of 
the Catholic Church, and the Church herself, to bring us 
back to first principles, to Scripture alone, on a level with 
the meanest sectarian. The footman upholds the staff 
and the staff supports the footman ; they mutually sus- 
tain one another. The grain is procured by the man, the 
grain feeds the man, but neither could subsist of itself and 
apart from the other ; so the sacred Canons lean upon the 
Scriptures, and the Scriptures are known and verified by 
the Sacred Canons ; thus they mutually defend each other. 
Hence the saying of St. Augustine, "I would not believe 
the Scriptures, if the Catholic Church induced me not to 
it." Therefore, Devoti's saying, '' The texts of Scripture 
retain, when transferred into Gratian, the same weight 
which they. previously had of themselves and from their 
own nature, is a bold step towards leveling the whole edi- 
fice of the Catholic Church. And the assertion, ''The 
Decretal of Gratian had never been sanctioned by the 
Holy See," is manifest falsehood. 

Second Heresy. — He says, '' From the Scripture proofs 
of the Primacy of Peter, you proceed to the ancient Can- 
ons, styled, of the Apostles. That they are not regarded 
by us as the true production of the Apostles you candidly 
acknowledge . . . . learned Protestants agree with us in 
rejecting them. 

'' I have thus offered an explanation of difiiculties 



BY INNOVATOR III. 203 

which have no direct bearing on the subject of our inves- 
tigation, and which I could have justly passed over with- 
out notice, because taken from suppositious documents. 
" In your progress among these impure sources, you 
come next to the Apostolical Constitutions, which, although 
confessedly spurious, you bring forward to bear evidence 

against us ; but as I am obliged to follow the path 

you have chosen, I will proceed, although reluctantly, to 
consider the justness of your conclusions from what is, 
or is not contained in these unimportant writings." 

Mark well the expressions : " The ancient Canons 
styled of the Apostles, are not regarded by us as the true 
productions of the Apostles;" ''they are suppositious 
documents;" ''the Apostolical Constitutions are confess- 
edly unimportant writings." Now, as tlie Innovator openly 
declares war, first, with the Apostolical Canons; and sec- 
ondly, with the Apostolical Constitutions, we must pro- 
ceed with caution on both questions, leaving him no room 
to retreat or shelter himself. By placing face to face, in 
both sides of the scale, the authorities for the Apostolical 
Canons and those that are against them, it will be seen 
which side is the heavier. I find on record but two docu- 
ments that could by any possibility be wrested against the 
Apostolical Canons, which documents I shall first insert, 
and after disposing of them, I will give the manifold rea- 
sons and weighty authorities that substantiate them. 

Authorities against the Apostolical Canons. 

Isodore says: ''The Canons which are styled of the 
Apostles, because neither the Apostolic See has received 
them, nor the holy Fathers have assented to them, they 
having been forged by heretics in the name of the Apos- 
tles, are far behind the Apostolical authority, and to be 



204 FOUR HERESIES 

ranked with the apocryphal writings." Quoted in Gratiav, 
Dist. xvi., ch. 1 . 

Note. — The authors of the gloss in Gratian write, that 
the foregoing sentiment of Isodore is found in the preface of 
the collection of Councils, which was transcribed from the 
library of the Seville church and transmitted to Rome. 
But in the preface of the public collection of Isodore a 
contrary sentiment is rather advanced ; which will be 
seen by and by. 

Devoti says : ^' The collection came to light, in com- 
pany with the eight books of the Apostolical Constitu- 
tions, under the name of Clement the Supreme Pontiff. 
Some writers were of opinion that these rules ought to 
be ascribed to the apostles ; but whereas no mention of 
them is made by the other writers on church affairs during 
the first three hundred years, and whereas many things 
in them are foreign to the apostolic age, and some others 
contrary to the Catholic doctrine, it is a proof that they 
cannot be attributed to the apostles." 

Behold the only authorities 1 find extant against the 
Apostolical Canons — Isodore and Devoti; who are but 
negative witnesses. The former, as he omits to specify 
the Pope who had not received them, or the holy Father 
who had not assented to them, or the heretics that had 
forged them, is but a negative witness entitled to no 
weight or importance ; the latter, as he names not the 
rogue who had clandestinely brought them into light in 
company with the eight books of the Apostolical Consti- 
tutions, or the writers who wrote for and against them 
during the first three centuries, or the things in them 
foreign to the apostolic age and to the Catholic doctrine, 
is also to be considered a witness both negative, vague. 



BY INNOVATOR III. 205 

indefinite, and entitled to no weight or consideration. 
Would not the similarity of thoughts and diction in De- 
voti and our Casuist show that they follow the trail of 
each other ? May it be hoped that no rational man will 
take their vague, unfounded assertion as his ground for 
rejecting the Apostolical Canons. 

Authorities for the Ajpostolical Canons. 

My authorities for the reception of these Canons are 
twofold— ^im^ and indirect. The persons and authors 
that positively and expressly attributed them to the apos- 
tles, I call direct authorities ; and the writers that adopt 
them, or any one of them, as the basis of solemn decrees 
upon faith and morals, I style indirect authorities. My 
direct authorities are highly respectable, and such as no 
man calling himself a Roman Catholic would reject. They 
are no less than three Popes and a General Council, 
together with Isodore himself ; which I copy, word for 
word, from the Decretal of Gratian. 

Papa Zepherinusadepiscojposjper Sidliam constitutos, epist. i. 
An, 208. - The apostles and several other bishops pre^ 
scribed sixty rules and commanded them to be observed." 
Quoted in Gratian^ Dist. xvi., ch. 2. 

Note.— That the Chief Pastor declares, in the year 
2 08; that the apostles and other apostolical prelates had 
provided for general observance sixty Canons And 
none could know better than he, who lived near the apos- 
tolic age, and I may say, among the very apostles, what 
rules and doctrine came down from them. This' testi- 
mony of the Pope is a direct contradiction to Devoti 
and the Innovator, who unblushingly assert -that no 
mention of the apostles' Canons is made by the other 

10 



206 FOUR HERESIES 

writers on church afiFairs during the first three centuries." 
Whilst Gratian reads in the above chapter ^' sixty rules, 
other compilers read fifty, and some seventy." 

Papa Leo. IX. centra epistolam Nicetce abbatis. An, 1049. 
'' The Fathers classify the book of Clement, that is, the 
Itinerary of the Apostle Peter and the Canons of the 
Apostles, among the apocryphals, the fifty chapters being 
excepted which they have decreed should be attached to 
the orthodox doctrine." Quoted in Gratian, Dist. xvi., ch. 3. 

Note. — The gloss on this Canon in Gratian says : that 
the chapter is extracted from the reply of Humbert, legate 
of Pope Leo IX., to the libel of Nicetas upon the Latins, 
which reply is yet extant in MS. in the library of St. 
Mary in Rome, and in several other libraries ; and that 
the chapter is justly ascribed to Pope Leo IX., because it 
was by his order and authority Humbert had undertaken 
to make the reply. Here again we see the Supreme Pon- 
tifi* proclaiming, in the 11th century, that the Fathers have 
decreed that the fifty chapters of the apostles form a part 
of the orthodox doctrine ; although he allows that some 
other Canons attributed to the apostles are apocryphal. 
Of these apocryphal Canons more hereafter. 

The 6th General Council at Ccnstantincphj An. 680. 
**The Holy Synod has decreed that the eighty-five chap- 
ters of the Apostles be in future held confirmed and rati- 
fied." Quoted in Gratian, Dist. xvi., ch. 4. 

Note. — The gloss upon the foregoing Canon in Gratian 
preserves what is called, "The Epistle of Isodore at the 
head of the Councils." 

'' Isodore, the servant of Christ, to his fellow-servant 
the reader. By reason of their great authority, we place 
before the other Councils the Canons, which are called of 



BT INNOVATOR III. 207 

the apostles, although considered by some as apocryphal; 
whereas many persons admit them, and the holy Fathers 
have with synodical authority confirmed their injunctions, 
and classified them with the Canonical Constitutions! 
First, the order for celebrating a Council is had, and then 
a list of the apostolical Canons and of the early aposto- 
lical decrees and different Councils, down from St. Clement 
to St. Sylvester, is subjoined in order.'^ 

Let not this testimony of Isodore be forgotten : '' We 
place before the other Councils the Canons of the apostles : 
because many persons admit them, and because the gene- 
ral Council has confirmed their injunctions." It had been 
often the case that persons of piety and good disposition 
held wrong views upon the written and unwritten word 
of God— upon Scripture and Tradition, which they cheer- 
fully abandon as soon as the Church defines and pro- 
claims, through her Pope and Council, the truth. So Iso- 
dore, whom we saw awhile ago impugning the apostolical 
Canons, now in pious submission to the General Council 
defends them. Further, let no body imagine that the 
Council of Constantinople, which has thus confirmed and 
ratified the 85 Canons of the apostles, is not sanctioned 
and held as a general Council by the Holy See. 

Papa Adrian Tharasio Patriarchs. '' I receive the 6th 
general Council, with all its Canons." Q^toted in Gratian, 
Dist. xvi., ck. 5. 

Now that my direct authorities for the reception of 
Apostolic Canons end here, come to view the indirect. 
See the Popes, Fathers, and even the general Councils of 
the early ages making the said Canons of the apostles 
the basis of solemn decrees and definitions on faith, 
morals, and discipline. 

Papa Leo IV., Episcopis Britanice. "It is not proper 



208 FOUR HERESIES 

to pass sentence upon any man with the gloss and com- 
mentaries of others, passing by the sacred Canons, or the 
decretal rules, which are in our hands. The Canons, 
which we use in all ecclesiastical decisions, are the Can- 
ons of the Apostles, those of the Councils of Nice, Ancyra, 
Neocaesarea, Gangrene, Antioc, Laodicea, Constantinople, 
Ephesis, Chalcedon, Sardica, Africa, Carthage, together 
with the decretals of the Roman Pontiffs — Sylvester, Syri- 
cius. Innocent, Zozimus, Celestine, Leo, Gelasius, Hilary, 
Symmachus, Hormisda, Symplicius, and Gregory I. These 
are our rules, by them the bishops pass judgment, and 
by them the bishops themselves and the priests are 
judged. But if any unusual difiSculty appear, which could 
not be settled by these means, the sayings of SS. Jerome, 
Augustine, Isodore, or of the other holy doctors, if they 
can be found, may be confidently proclaimed and followed; 
or the question must be referred to the Holy See. Where- 
fore I am not afraid distinctly and loudly to proclaim, 
that any bishop, priest, or layman, who does not, in 
general, receive the said sayings of the holy Fathers, 
which we hold as Canons, holds and believes in vain the 
Catholic and Apostolic faith, or even the four Gospels." 
— Quoted in Gratian, Dist. xx., ch.\. 

Let the great Pontiff Leo IV. speak for himself. 
Enumerating the Councils, Popes, and holy Fathers who 
are to be the rules and guides of the bishops for deciding 
difficult questions and passing sentence, he places in the 
foreground the Canons of the Apostles. And I find the 
same Canons of the Apostles received and adopted as 
basis of solemn decrees by the great and general Council 
of Nice I., Council of Antioc, Council of Nice II., and 
the Council of Trent. 

15 Can. Apostolorum. — '^ If any priest, or deacon, or 
other cleric, leaving his own parish, immigrates into 



BY INNOVATOR III. 209 

another ; or goes without his bishop's knowledge and 
dwells in another parish, we permit him not any longer 
to discharge the ministry, especially if, after being recalled 
by the bishop, he thinks it not fit to return, but persists 
in his iniquity. Let him however receive communion 
there as a layman." 

Con. Nic^n I., Can. 15.— By reason of the manifold 
troubles and confusion always arising from the practice, it 
is positively decreed that the disorderly custom of bishops, 
priests, and deacons to pass from city to city be abol- 
ished, and that if any one of them, subsequent to these 
decrees of the Holy Council, make the attempt, he be 
checked, and sent back to his own church, for which he 
had been ordained.'' 

Con. Antioc. ck 3. '' If any priest, deacon, or other 
cleric, take it into his head to desert his parish, transfer 
himself into another, and presume to make his permanent 
residence there, let him not any longer officiate there, 
particularly if, admonished and ordered by his bishop to 
return to his own parish, he refuses to obey. But if he 
persist in his obstinacy, let him be positively deprived 
without hope of restoration. Moreover, if another bishop 
receive a priest convicted of the foregoing charge, let 
him also be reprimanded by the Council as a transgressor 
of the Sacred Canons." 

Who sees not that the two great Councils take the 
Apostolical Canon as a guide in passing their decrees ? 
Moreover, the 31st Canon of the Apostles is adopted as 
the foundation of a solemn decree by the second Council 
of Nice, consisting of 350 bishops, in the year 789. 

31 Can. Apostolorum. " If any bishop using the secu- 
lar power obtain through them a church, let him be de- 
posed, and let all persons that communicate with him be 
excommunicated." 



210 FOUR HERESIES 

Con Nic^n. II. *' Let every election of a bishop, priest, 
or deacon made through the princes remain null, accord- 
ing to the Apostolical Canon, saying : If any bishop ob- 
tain through the secular powers a church, let him be de- 
posed, and let all who communicate with him be excom- 
municated.'^ Quoted in Gratian. Dist. 63, ch. t. 

Also the 39th and t5th Canons of the Apostles are 
followed by the Holy Council of Trent. 

Can. 39, Apostolorum. ^^ Let the bishop have charge 
of the Church property, and dispense them, as if in the 
sight of God ; and let him not at all usurp them, or be- 
stow upon his relatives what belongs to God. But if they 
be paupers, let him administer to them as paupers ; and 
let not the Church matters be for their sake plundered." 

Can. 75, Apostolorum. *' It is improper for a bishop to 
gratify through human affection a brother, or child, or 
other relative ; he ought not to transfer the Church pro- 
perty unto heirs." 

Con. Trid. Sess. 25, ch. 1, De Reform^ speaking of the 
Cardinals, bishops, and priests, decrees : ** It is positively 
forbidden them to study to aggrandize with the Church 
revenues their cousins or relations ; whereas the Canons 
of the apostles likewise forbid them to bestow upon their 
relatives the Church things, as being God^s property. 
But if they be poor persons, let them distribute to them 
as to paupers ; and let them not squander or lavish on 
their account these things. Nay, the holy Council would 
earnestly caution them to lay aside totally all human 
affection towards brethren, nephews, and cousins ; which 
was the source of manifold evils in the Church." 

Remark that the holy Council of Trent builds its de- 
cree for the reformation of the Clergy upon the Canons 
of the Apostles. 



BY INNOVATOR III. 211 

With such proof, both direct and indirect, of their weight 
and authority staring him in the face, the Innovator who 
wrote : *' that the ancient Canons styled of the Apostles, 
are not regarded by us as the true production of the 
Apostles," is not a Catholic, but an infamous heretic. 

Apparent contradiction between the Apostolical Canons and the 
Catholic doctrin£, and Catholic discipline. 

The 65th and 84th Canons of the Apostles, alone, 
seem to give any ground for the charge of such contra- 
diction; but a little reflection on the causes and motives 
that probably led the holy Apostles to provide these two 
Canons, will show that there is no contradiction at all. 

65. Can. Apostolorum. — '^ If any clergyman is found 
fasting on the Lord's Day, or Sabbath, one only being ex- 
cepted, let him be deprived ; and if any layman, let him 
be excommunicated." 

Note. If by the word '' Sabbath," is meant Saturday, 
the Canon is certainly at variance with the Catholic dis- 
cipline, for in several Catholic countries and religious 
communities, they fast under the sanction of the chief 
pastor and the whole church on Saturday ; but if by the 
word Sabbath, is meant the Lord's Day, or Sunday, it 
totally alters the question. Although the Canon may, in 
our days, when people are become mere slaves to their 
bellies and sensual appetites — when they hardly think of 
fasting any Sunday, and grumble for being commanded 
by the Church to fast and abstain Fridays, in commemo- 
ration of Christ's passion on that day — the Canon maybe 
uncalled for. Although it be considered too rigorous to 
hold out a suspension and excommunication against per- 
sons now-a-days, when the Christian religion is generally 
diffused, for fasting, even on Sunday, if willing, there 
would be no severity in it in the primitive ages, previous 



212 FOUR HERESIES 

to the propagation of the faith, when the Jews, heretics, 
and heathens used to fast on Sunday, and Christmas Day, 
Easter Day, and so forth, in derision of Christ Jesus. 
The Christians, if discovered fasting on such solemn fes- 
tivals, would be justly deemed as relapsing, and therefore 
unworthy of Christian communion. The Canon was un- 
doubtedly leveled against such backsliders. That the 
Jews, heretics, and heathens were accustomed to fast on 
the Christian festivals in contempt of Christ our Lord, 
we know from the Supreme Pastor. 

Pope Leo l.,Ejpist. 93. — Speaking of the heretics : ''The 
Birth Day of Christ, which the Catholic Church has con- 
secrated to the Nativity of a real man, because the Word 
was made man and dwelt amongst us, they, heretics, 
honor not in reality, but in sham, fasting on that day, and 
also on the Lord^s Day, which is consecrated to Christ's 
resurrection. They behave thus because they believe not 
that Christ the Lord was in the real nature of a man, and 
look upon his actions not as real, but as illusions : imi- 
tating the notions of Cerdo, Marcian, and their kindred 
spirits, the Manicheans ; who have been charged and con- 
victed at our late investigation, for that they spend the 
Lord's Day, which is consecrated to the Savior's resurrec- 
tion, in gloomy fasting to the honor of the sun, in such a 
manner that they totally stray from the unit}'' of the faith.'' 

Now we see the motives that called for the rigorous 
enactment of the apostles against the Sunday fast ; but 
as these motives and causes no longer exist, Cerdo, Mar- 
cian, and Manicheans are no longer heard of ; and as the 
Sun of justice has diffused the heavenly rays into the ends 
of the world, the Canon may be grown obsolete. The 
84th Canon of the apostles could be reconciled with the 
Catholic doctrine and discipline in the same manner. 



BY INNOVATOR HI. 213 

By placing now in full view, face to face, in both sides 
of the scale, the arguments and authorities for, and those 
against, the Apostolical Canons, how stands the balance ? 
We have seen against them only the Innovator, Devoti', 
and Isodore ; although the last-mentioned author soon 
after takes the other side of the question. But supposing 
that he did not, and that the three personages hold out 
together on the opposition, what are they but private and 
obscure authors ? 

For the Apostolical Canons, we have seen a mighty 
host of Fathers, Popes, and Councils; we have seen them 
received, renewed, and adopted as guides and authorities 
by four General Councils ; nay, by all the Popes and 
Councils, down from the earliest ages to the sixteenth 
century. 

Further, the general Council of Trent begins the Hh, 
and every other session, with this preamble, or the like : 
" The holy and oecumenical Council, adhering to the holy 
Scriptures and Apostolical Traditions/' &c. If the canons 
of the Apostles be not the Apostolical Traditions alluded 
to in said preambles, what, and where are they to be 
found ? They must be had somewhere. 

That there was held in Jerusalem a certain assembly 
of the Apostles and ancients for to consider of some matters, we 
know. Acts, XV. 6. And that said assembly issued some 
canons, we also know. Acts, xvi. 4. And as they passed 
through the cities they delivered unto them the decrees for to keep, 
that were decreed hy the Apostles and ancients who were in Jeru- 
salem. Remark, that the decrees were delivered unto 
them, not to be thrown away or neglected, but for to 
keep— to be preserved as rules for their future conduct. 
Would it not be a libel upon the piety and charity of the 
ancient Christians, who valued the traditions and doc- 
trine of the Apostles more than all worldly allurements, 
who endured even the loss of life itself rather than deny 

10* 



214 FOUR HERESIES 

their faith, to think or say that they preserved not, or 
handed not down to posterity these Canons which were 
delivered unto them for to keep ? If the Canons styled, 
of the Apostles, be not the decrees pro mulgated by that 
assembly of Apostles and ancients for observance through 
the cities, what, and where are they to be found ? If it 
be asserted that the genuine decrees of the assembly in 
Jerusalem had been lost, and that the Canons styled, of 
the Apostles, are but the forgeries of some evil-minded 
heretics : then it must be shown when, and where were 
the true Canons lost ; when, and by whom were the spu- 
rious ones forged ; the villain's name and country should 
be specified. Whereas the adversaries never did this, 
their opposition to the Apostolical Canons is but an as- 
sertion, unworthy of notice. 

Other weighty reasons attach me to the Apostolical 
Canons. Pour different copies of them are in my possess- 
ion. The first is had in a folio Corpus Juris Canonici^ 
dated Lyons, 1616 ; the second in an octavo Summa Con- 
ciliorum by Carranza, Lovain, 1668 ; the third in a 
quarto Corpus Juris Civilis, Amsterdam, 1663 ; and the 
fourth copy in a folio Corpus Juris Civilis, dated Leipsic, 
n03. Need I say that the four copies of the Canons of 
the holy Apostles, thus edited in distant countries, at 
various periods, under hostile governments, agree in 
every particle. 

When I see the Apostolical Canons thus received and 
sanctioned in Protestant as in Catholic kingdoms by the 
spiritual and temporal powers, blended and interwoven 
with the laws and observances of the Church, in all ages 
and countries, down from the Apostles, taken as the basis 
for their sacred decrees by the Popes and General Coun- 
cils, I would no sooner discard them than the whole Cath- 
olic Church. The man, indeed, that would proclaim on 
the house-top ^' that the Canons styled of the Apostles 



BY INNOVATOR III. 215 

are spurious and unimportant documents," cannot be a 
Catholic, but an infamous heretic, a wolf under the sheep's 
clothing, gnawing the vitals of the Church of Christ. 

Tht A'postolical Constitutions. 

Innovator says: " In your progress among these im- 
pure sources, you next come to the Apostolical Constitu- 
tions, which, although confessedly spurious, you bring 
forward to bear evidence against us." 

The Apostolical Constitutions, which he calls *' impure 
and spurious sources," consist .of eight books, which are 
current under the name of Clement, the disciple and third 
successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome. They are 
preserved in the first volume of Labb's collection of the 
Councils. We have various reasons for holding them in 
the highest esteem — first, because they contain a com- 
plete body of the Catholic doctrine and discipline, a com- 
prehensive view of the spirit and principles of the Apos- 
tolical times; second, because they are quoted and com- 
mended by the highest authorities; and, third, because 
they were venerated and reduced to practice by the early 
Christians. 

Pope Gregory the Great^ Book xii., Epist. xxxii., saith : 
'* And I call God as witness, who knoweth the thoughts 
of all men, to whose eyes are all things open and mani- 
fest, that if I would destroy the things which our prede- 
cessors have decreed, I ought not to be called a builder, 
but a leveler ; as the voice of the truth declareth, Luke, 
xi. : Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made deso- 
late^ and house upon house shall fall : also, every science and 
law divided against itself shall be destroyed. Con- 
sequently we must all, of necessity, hold the decrees of 
our holy Fathers, doing nothing through the spirit of op- 



216 FOUR HERESIES 

position, but being of one mind in all religious questions^ 
we obey, with God^s help, the divine and Apostolical 
Constitutions.'' 

St, JEpiphaniuSj Lib, ii., Heresis 45, refuting some an- 
cient heretics, the Severiani^ who taught that wine and 
women were created by the devil, says : '' That the vine 
is neither planted by the devil, nor takes its germinating 
property from the serpent, all people know. How could 
this be, whereas the Lord himself attests and declares : 
I shall not drink of the fruit of this vine until I drink of it 
afresh with you in the kingdom of heaven ? And where- 
as the Truth, sending forth his divine rays upon the false 
sayings, pre-expressed his doctrine to their condemnation: 
the Holy Scriptures in general have foretold the defeat 
of those who will rise up in opposition to the truth. Just 
as the Lord himself, in refutation of the wretched and 
erroneous Severus, calls himself a vine : I am the true 
vine. Had the name of the vine been in general objec- 
tionable, surely he would not have assumed it. And the 
Apostles, in the aforesaid Constitution, declare that the 
Church is the plantation and universal vineyard of God. 
Moreover, the Lord himself again gives in the Gospel the 
parable of the vineyard." 

Let us not forget that St. Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, 
in the end of the fourth century, appeals to the Apostol- 
ical Constitutions for the purpose of refuting the heretics, 
which he would not at all do if no such Constitutions had 
been current in his days, and if they had not been held 
as weighty authority on religious questions. Hence it is 
manifest that they were then current. What reason have 
we to think that they were lost in after ages, or that they 
are not preserved in their weight and authority down to 
our own days ? It lies upon the Casuist to show where, 
when, and by whom they were lost ; and to show where, 



BY INNOVATOR III. 21T 

when, and by whom were the Constitutions, current under 
the names of the Apostles, forged and published. 

EusEBius, Eccl. Hist. J Lib. ii., ch. 1. '' Clement records in 
the 6th book of Institutions, saying, that subsequent to 
the Savior's ascension, Peter, James, and John, although 
the Lord had preferred them to the rest, disputed not on 
that account about degrees of dignity; but elected James, 
surnamed the Just, as bishop of Jerusalem. And in the 
7th book he bears this testimony to their character ; the 
Lord, after his resurrection, bestowed upon James the 
Just, and John, and Peter, the gift of wisdom .... These 
accounts are extracted from the monuments of the an- 
cients." Cambridge Ed. 1^20. 

Alb AN Butler, Feasts and Fasts. — Lord''s Day, page bb, 
Dublin Ed. 1801, showing how the ancient Christians 
sanctified the Sabbath, cites the Apostolical Constitutions, 
saying : ''In the Apostolical Constitutions, lib. iii., ch. 59, 
the bishop is commanded to exhort the people to frequent 
the Church twice a day, morning and evening, that no 
person by absenting himself leave defective the body 
of Christ, by withdrawing therefrom a m.ember. Divide 
not the body of Christ ; scatter not his members. Meet 
in prayer in the temple of the Lord, especially on Satur- 
day and Sunday ; go diligently to the Church for to cele- 
brate the praises of God, &c." 

And he says in his Lives of the Saints, on St. Clement, 
Nov. 23, in a Note, '' some have attributed to St Clement 
the Apostolical Canons, which were collected in the third 
century from various preceding Councils, and partly from 
those of the Rebaptizers in Africa. The Apostolical 
Constitutions are almost as old as the collection of said 
Canons. They are quoted by Epiphanius, Heresies 45, but 
have been altered since that time. They are a compila- 
tion of the regulations of many ancient pastors, in some 
of which the author personates the apostles." 



218 FOUR HERESIES 

Observe, that besides the internal evidence of the 
Apostolical origin and sanctity of these constitutions, 
there is the external. Gregory the Great obeys, with 
God^s help, the divine and Apostolical Constitutions. St. 
Epiphanius saith : The Apostles in the Constitution de- 
clare that the Church is the plantation and universal 
vineyard of God. Eusebius' ecclesiastical history quotes 
the 6th and tth books of the Institutions of the Apostles, 
in regard to the respective dignities of Peter, John, and 
James. And Alban Butler refers to the Apostolical Con- 
stitutions to show the obligation of all persons to frequent 
the Church morning and evening on all Sundays and 
Holidays ; and adds, that the Apostolical Constitutions 
are a compilation of regulations of the ancient pastors. 

Whosoever would imagine that those ancient pastors 
or councils had not faithfully preserved the regulations 
which they had received from the Apostles, or that they 
imposed upon mankind, under the name of the Apostles, 
rules and principles which they never received from them, 
will soon lose all faith in Church authority and become a 
deist. However, that Canons and Constitutions were 
forged and circulated under the name of the Apostles by 
the heretics of the early ages, we know from the Apostles 
themselves, St. Augustine, and Pope Leo I. 

Can. 59 Apostolorum. '' If any person, to the ruin 
both of the clergy and laity, publish, as if sanctioned by 
the Church, under false names, the books of the wicked 
ones, let him be deprived." 

CoNSTiTUTiONEs Apostolorum, /i&. vi., ck. 16. **In the 
primitive ages, infamous heretics wrote apocryphal books 
of Moses, Adam, Enoch, Isaias, Elias, and of the patri- 
archs, which are poisonous and injurious to the truth, to 
bring into contempt the creation of the world. Divine 
Providence, matrimony, the begetting children, the law 
and the prophets; inserting therein some barbarous names 



BY INNOVATOR III. 219 

of angels, but, more properly speaking, the names of de- 
mons, by whose instigation they wrote such things .... 
We have written to apprise you of our doctrine in this 
regard, and to caution you against the books forged and 
circulated by the wicked ones under our name. Regard 
not the names even of the Apostles, but the nature of 
the things and the sentiments which never strayed from 
the truth. We are aware that Simon and Cleobulus had 
composed and spread poisonous books under the name of 
Christ, to deceive his servants and our disciples." 

St. Augustine^ Civitas Dei, lib. xv., ch. 23, says : " Let 
us not notice the fables of the Apocryphal Scriptures, 
because the source of them was never traced out by the 
authorities from whom came down to us the genuine 
scriptures in a regular and well-known succession. That 
Enoch, the seventh in generation from Adam, wrote some 
heavenly matters, we cannot doubt, whereas the fact is 
attested by the Apostle Jude, in his canonical epistle. 
But the same heavenly matters are properly omitted from 
the canonical scriptures, which had been carefully pre- 
served by a clerical succession in the temple of the He- 
brews, as being of doubtful origin, and no proof being 
had that they were his real production, and no succession 
of persons being known to have preserved them. There- 
fore, the writings current under his name, in regard to 
the giants, asserting that they had no men for fathers, 
were justly rejected by the learned, as spurious produc- 
tions. Likewise, several things under the names of the 
other prophets, and lately, things under the names of the 
Apostles, are produced by the heretics, which are, after 
mature investigation, rejected as apocryphal by the ca- 
nonical authorities." 

Leo the Great, Sermo iv. de Epiphania. " The Mani- 
cheans, enemies of the truth, have rejected the law of 
Moses and the inspired prophets, and the very evangelical 



220 FOUR HERESIES 

and apostolical pages, fabricating, under the names of the 
apostles and of the Savior himself, thick volumes of false- 
hood, to the purpose of substantiating their own erroneous 
phantoms, and infusing the deadly poison into the heads 
of their dupes ; for they saw all nature opposing and ex- 
claiming against them, and that not only the New, but 
also the Old Testament confuted their mad and sacrile- 
gious impiety. Persisting, however, in their mad fabric- 
ations, they cease not to disturb by their deception the 
Church of God." 

EjpistolcE DecretaleSj 93, ch. xv. ad Turribium. '' We have 
learned from respectable witnesses, and also from our own 
observation, that several of their books are very corrupt 
and circulated by them as canonical ; for how could they 
deceive the simple but by mixing up the poison in the 
cup with some honey, that they may not at all perceive 
the deadly poison ? Therefore the priests must beware, 
and with the greatest diligence provide that the corrupted 
and erroneous books be adopted in no sort of reading. 
And the apocryphal Scriptures, which under the names 
of the apostles contain the seed of various errors, must 
be not only interdicted, but likewise totally removed out 
of the way, and burned in the fire. For although they 
contain some things that have the semblance of religion, 
however they are never free from tiie poison which, through 
the fascinating fables and marvelous narratives, insensi- 
bly lead the deluded into all sorts of errors. Therefore, 
if any one of the bishops, either will not forbid the apo- 
cryphal books to be kept in the houses, or permit the books 
corrupted by the Priscilliani to be read as canonical in 
the Church, let him know that he is to be judged as a 
heretic : whereas he that recalls not another from the 
error, proves himself to be in error." 

That I may conclude, now we know from the very 



BY INNOVATOR III. 221 

best sources, that the ancient heretics, to bring the works 
of God, the creation, matrimony, and human generation, 
into contempt, circulated forged prophesies and gospels 
under the names of the Apostles and even of Christ him- 
self ; which forgeries the Church has long since exploded, 
whilst she has preserved and fenced in the genuine scrip- 
tures. We also know from the same sources that the 
heretics, through the same infernal motives, mixed up 
with the genuine ones false Canons and Constitutions 
under the names of the Apostles, which spurious produc- 
tions our holy Popes and Councils have culled out, and 
preserved and handed down the genuine Constitutions. 
As no rational man would reject the genuine and authen- 
ticated Scriptures by reason of said spurious prophesies 
and gospels, so he would not discard the pure Apostolical 
Canons and Constitutions of the Apostles, which are the 
foundation of, and are interwoven with the whole body 
of the Canon Law, by reason of the aforesaid forgeries of 
the heretics. It might be that some of these forgeries fell 
into the Innovator's hands, and that, making no distinction 
between the wheat and the tares, he has become incredu- 
lous in the Apostles^ Canons and Constitutions in general. 

Third HERESY.—Innovator says : '^ You have at last 
reached a class of spurious documents which you avow 
are highly favorable to the claims of the Roman Pontiffs, 
—the Decretals of Isodore Mercator. You dwell on them' 
with peculiar emphasis, and not only do you charge the 
forgery of them on Reculphus, bishop of Moguntum, about 
the year 787, but, at one fell swoop, you make the Popes 
accomplices of the fraud by their countenance and sanc- 
tion. The collection was not made at Rome, but in Ger- 
many ; and its author is still problematic, though you 
unhesitatingly pronounce him to have been a bishop. The 
literary fraud did not consist in forging the documents 



222 FOUR HERESIES 

altogether with a view to introduce new doctrines or a 
new system of ecclesiastical polity ; for it is admitted 
that genuine documents were used as material for this 
imposture, whilst false inscriptions and clumsy combina- 
tions gave the collection an air of remote antiquity. You 
say that this imposture was executed by a bishop ; but 
surely you must know that this is quite uncertain : you 
add that it was patronized by successive Popes ; but you 
are aware that the usage of three centuries had given the 
Decretals the force of law before the Popes admitted 
them into the body of laws used in the Roman Church. 
Nicholas I., in rebuking Hincmar, bishop of Rheims, for 
having rejected them, assumed as certain the fact of their 
being such as they were represented — the decrees of 
the early Pontiffs : but he had not examined nor pro- 
nounced on the alleged fact of their authenticity. If you 
will take the pains of comparing the decretals with their 
sources, you will find how easy it was, at a time when crit- 
ical inquiry was almost unknown, to be mistaken in regard 
to a fact of this nature. The Decretals of which you speak 
being presented by their author, presumed to be Bene- 
dictus Levita, in connection with authentic decrees and 
Canons, got credence and currency first in Germany, where 
they were contrived, afterwards in France, and subsequently 
in Rome itself, when usage had given them the force of 
law. They were forgeries, because ascribed to the an- 
cient Popes, but they were for the most part the express- 
ion of primitive faith and of the received discipline of 
the Church The Popes who admitted these De- 
cretals into the body of the Canon Law after they had 
been elsewhere adopted during three centuries, did not 
study the interests of their See so much as uniformity of 
discipline. The special object of the contriver of the 
fraud was most probably to shield bishops against their 
accusers, for to this much of what may be considered ori- 



3^. 



BY INNOVATOR III. 223 

ginal in the Decretals is directed. The scheme of impos- 
ture was certainly not concocted by the Roman Pontiffs ; 
nor can a shadow of evidence be offered for this injurious 
assertion." 

Now let us ijause and reflect on this mass of slander 
heaped together in the quotation just given. The goodly 
Innovator asserts, " that the Decretals of Isodore Mer- 
cator were a literary fraud by Benedict Levita." " That 
they gained credence and currency first in Germany, 
then in France, and lastly in Rome itself" " That Pope 
Nicholas I. rebuked Hincmar because he rejected them, 
presuming they were the genuine decrees of the early 
Pontiffs." "That the Popes who admitted them into the 
body of the Canon Law after they had been admitted else- 
where for three centuries, consulted not for the interest 
of their See as much as for the uniformity of discipline." 
" That the special object of the fraud was most probably 
to shield bishops against their accusers." " The scheme 
of imposition was certainly not concocted by the Roman 
Pontiffs." " That the Decretals were forgeries, as being 
ascribed to the ancient Pontiffs." 

Forsooth, the ancient Papal Decretals incorporated 
with the body of the Canon Law were forged by Benedict 
Levita, in Germany, with the view of screening delin- 
quent bishops from their accusers, ushered into public 
notice by Pope Nicholas I., and finally admitted into the 
body of the Canon law by subsequent Popes. If you be- 
lieve the Innovator, the Germanic bishops were a poor 
race, whose innocence could not be sustained without the 
help of forgeries, and the Popes themselves were no better 
characters— either fools or knaves, in admitting forgeries 
among the Canons. He that shields the culprits with 
false veils or forged documents, becomes a culprit him- 
self When it is thus proclaimed from the house-top that 



224 FOUR HERESIES 

bishops could not be defended without the help of fraud 
and forgeries, and that the Popes hold up forgeries as 
rules for the guidance of all future generations, what man 
will care a straw for either bishops, Popes, or for the 
rules or laws of the Catholic Church ? Whosoever imag- 
ines that the body of the Canon Law is but a compound 
of forged and genuine Decretals, may not have discretion 
to sift the true from the false Decretals, but will probably 
throw away the whole mass, the true and the false Can- 
ons, in disgust, as the Innovator himself, sitpra^ page 197, 
does. Since the traitor disguised in the camp is much 
more dangerous than the undisguised foe in the field, the 
wolf in the sheep^s clothing than in his native pelt, we 
must proceed with caution and circumspection. 

Here I make a stand against the foul attack of the 
Innovator upon the collection of Isodore, and upon the 
Papal Decretals therein contained. First, as said collec- 
tion and decretals are scattered throughout and interwo- 
ven with the Gratian and Gregorian Decretals, which are 
revised, corrected, and edited by the Supreme Pontiffs, 
supra, pagel92, said Papal decretal epistles are based not 
upon the solitary authority of Isodore, but also upon that 
of the Popes and the whole Catholic Church. Second, 
that Pope Nicholas I. rebuked not Hincmar and other 
Prench bishops for the rejection of any decretals whatever 
incorporated by Isodore or other compilers with the Canon 
Law; but for the rejection of the Papal epistles wandering 
outside, or not incorporated therewith, will be made mani- 
fest by the following translation of said rebuke : 

Pope Nicholas I. '' If by the decrees of the Roman 
Pontiffs are approved or rejected the works of other 
writers, so that what things soever the Holy See has ap- 
proved or rejected, the same remain to this day ratified or 
verified ; upon stronger reason should her own definitions, 



BY INNOVATOR III. 225 

promulgated at divers times for the Catholic truth to meet 
the manifold wants of the Church and to uphold the morals 
of the faithful, be respected and preferred to all profane 
writings, and adopted with discretion and allowance on all 
occasions. Although some of you have written that said 
Decretals of the early Pontiffs appear not in any part of the 
code of the Canons, yet the same persons, when said Decre- 
tals favor their views, freely use them, and now only they 
discard them, when they seem tending to advance the au- 
thority of the Holy See, or to diminish their own privileges. 
'' If they say that the decretal epistles of the ancient 
Roman Pontiffs must not be admitted for this reason, that 
they are not found written in the code of the Canons : 
therefore neither any constitution nor document of St. 
Gregory, or of any other Pope, before or after him, must 
be received because they are not written in the code of 
the Canons. Therefore they erase from their books the 
doctrine and sanctions of said Pontiffs, as not being writ- 
ten in the code of the Canons ; for why should they hold 
a place on the parchment after having been rejected ? 
But why dwell longer on the subject, whereas we will" 
receive neither the Old nor New Testament, if we think 
that these folk ought to be listened to ? For neither the 
one nor the other is found inserted in the code of the Can- 
ons. But they that are always ready not to obey, but to 
rebel, will answer, saying : that amongst the Canons is 
found a decree of the holy Pope Innocent, by which we 
are authorized to receive both Testaments, although nei- 
ther of them is fully inserted with the Canons of our fath- 
ers. Our reply to their objection is this : If both Tes- 
taments must be received, not because they are found in 
full, annexed to the code of the Canons, but because the 
decree of St. Innocent concerning them has come to light, 
it follows that the decretal epistles of the Roman Pontiffs 
nmt he received, even if they be not attached to the code 



226 FOUR HERESIES 

of the Canons. And whereas one decree of St. Leo is 
found amongst the same Canons by which all the decre- 
tal epistles and Constitutions of the Holy See are com- 
manded to be observed so strictly, that if any person com- 
mit against them, he is to know that forgiveness is denied 
him ; for he says in his Decretal Epistles, 87, ad JSpisco- 
pos Africanos : 

'' Lest it happen that what we on this occasion overlook, 
be taken as law, we command that all the Decretal Con- 
stitutions, both of St. Innocent of blessed memory, and 
of all our predecessors, promulgated about ecclesiastical 
orders and canonical discipline, be strictly observed by 
your charity, insomuch that if any person commit against 
them, he is to know that forgiveness is thenceforward to 
be denied him. Now by saying, all the Decretal Constitutions^ 
he omits not any one of them, but commands all and 
every one of them to be observed. And again, by saying, 
of all our 'predecessors, he excepts none of the Roman Pon- 
tiffs who went before him, whose Decretal Constitutions 
he has so strictly commanded to be by all persons observed, 
that if any man commit against them, he shall know that 
forgiveness must be denied unto him. Therefore it is 
indifferent whether all of the Decretal Constitutions of 
the Apostolic See be, or be not attached to the Canons of 
the Councils, as the whole of them could not be collected 
together into one body; and as those that are incorporated 
therewith give strength and weight to those that are not, 
especially as the Synodal actions during the discussion 
of said Canons are not contained in the code of the Ca- 
nons, but are, nevertheless, received by us with respect. 
With St. Leo agrees the holy and learned Pope Gelasius, 
in his Decretals, saying : We decree that the Decretal 
Epistles which the most saintly Popes had issued at divers 
times from the city of Rome, at the consultations of sev- 
eral fathers, be inviolably'' observed. Upon which let it 



BY INNOVATOR III. 22t 

be noted, that he said not the Decretal Epistles which are 
had amongst the Canons, nor only those which the modern 
Pontiffs have issued at divers times from the city of Rome. 
By saying, ^' at divers times," the holy man alludes also to 
the times when the bloody persecutions of the Pagans 
would hardly allow the bishops opportunities to submit 
their cases to the Apostolic See. 

'* We therefore, being fortified by God^s grace with these 
authorities, have proven that there is no difference be- 
tween the Papal decrees which are incorporated with the 
code of the Canons, and those which for their bulk could 
hardly be added thereto : having proven that the illus- 
trious Popes Leo and Gelasius have commanded both 
that all the decretal constitutions of all their predeces- 
sors, and all the decretal epistles which the most holy 
Pontiffs had at divers times issued from the city of Rome, 
must be respectfully received and observed." Nicolas 
Papa I. aTchie;piscopis, et episcopis in Gallia constitutis. Quoted 
Gratian, Dist. xix., c. i. 

^ Prom the Bull just quoted it remains evident that 
Hincmar and his brethren in France took no exception 
whatever to the decretal epistles of the early Roman 
Pontiffs found within, but to those wandering outside the 
code of Canons ; that all the decretals of all the Popes, 
ancient and modern, whether they be incorporated with' 
or separated from the said code, are equally binding ; and 
that therefore the Innovator's attack upon the Popes and 
German bishops is but foul slander, calculated to bring 
the prelacy, Holy See, and the Fold of Christ into con- 
tempt. From the Bull it remains also manifest that the 
French clergy, at that early period, began to vilify the 
Vicar of Christ, that they went out sowing the seed of 
the Galilean Liberties which produced unto themselves 
the most bitter fruits, in the year n93. Have we no 



228 FOUR HERESIES 

reason to tremble, when the same baneful seed is scat- 
tered abroad in the American soil by our goodly Innovator. 

Remark, that the decretal epistles of the early Popes, 
and the sayings of the holy Fathers, and even of Isodore 
himself, are ranked with the Canons of the General Coun- 
cils for the settlement of religious difficulties, and that he 
is no longer a Catholic who rejects them. I have now in 
my possession, on the one hand, the decretal epistles in 
folio, of two great Popes — Leo I. and Gregory the Great ; 
and on the other, the Body of the Canon Law, which had 
been approbated, as hitherto observed by Pope Gregory 
XIII., and sanctioned by all his successors in the chair 
of St. Peter. These two works satisfactorily prove to me 
the integrity and authenticity of one another. When I 
find the said Decretal Epistles of Leo and Gregory most 
accurately quoted, sometimes in part and sometimes in 
full, in said Body of the Canons, I cannot but admire the 
honesty and fidelity of the compilers of that Body : and 
I am induced to receive also, with full confidence in their 
honesty and fidelity, the decretal epistles of all the other 
Popes, from their hands. The compilers of the canon 
law, who are proved faithful and honest in many points, 
are entitled to public confidence on every point, until some 
stronger proof than the unfounded assertion of the Inno- 
vator be given to the contrary. 

In addition to the foregoing external evidence of their 
genuineness, the decretal epistles of the early Pontifi*s 
carry with them the internal. They present to us a clear 
and concise view of the Catholic doctrine and discipline, 
drawn in the saintly style of Apostolic men, inheriting 
the promise of Christ to St. Peter, that his faith shall not 
fail. They were issued from the chair of Peter, to fortify 
the martyrs in their trials and afflictions, and to define and 
defend the faith against present and future heresies ; 
written by men, who by reason of their contiguity to the 



BY INNOVATOR III. 229 

true light, could not be mistaken in the faith which was 
handed down by the Apostles. Indeed, the definitions of 
the early Popes appear so pure and orthodox, that now, 
at the lapse of near two thousand years, neither one iota 
nor one particle could be taken from or added to them, 
and that they will continue until the end of time as bril- 
liant torches, ever shining and never dying, to guide poor 
mortals through the gloom and fog of a corrupt world 
into the joy of the Lord. If the decretal epistles of the 
early Popes which are preserved by Isidore, and after 
him by Gratian, be thrown overboard, the Holy Bible, or 
any one article of the faith, cannot be traced to the Apos- 
tles, doubt and infidelity will reign, all Christianity must 
go. 

When we recollect, on the one hand, that the decretals 
of the early Popes form a part and parcel of the author- 
ized Canon law of our holy mother the Church, and that 
they had been always used, along with the decrees of the 
General Councils, in judgments in matters of faith and 
morals, it may be proper, on the other, to point out the 
ground taken by the Innovator for calling them " false 
decretals f " the pretended decretals of the Popes of the 
first three centuries." He says, first, '' that the sameness 
of arguments and diction, visible in them, would show 
that they were the production of one man f second, '^ the 
forced and incoherent quotations in them from Scripture, 
would prove them not to be the production of inspired 
men;" and, third, ''the uncultivated language of them 
would seem to remove the authornS far up from the refined 
Apostolic age." 

These, the only grounds taken by the opponents of 
the Papal decretals, are but the phantoms and conjectures 
of men coming into the world near two thousand years 
subsequent to the date of the documents which they im- 
pugn ; phantoms more befitting the deist, who, from 

11 



230 FOUR HERESIES 

similar conjectures, would discard all revealed religion, 
the four gospels, with the Canonical epistles of St. Paul, 
James, Peter, and John ; for the diction and doctrine 
which they contain are sometimes so similar and identi- 
cal that you would take them to be the production of one 
person. The corresponding texts, so obscurely connected 
that a modern Innovator could not, from his judgment 
and apart from the enarrations of the holy Fathers, re- 
concile them ; and the language of the inspired writers 
appears often so involved and at variance with the rules 
of modern criticism ; should not the unity of diction and 
doctrine in the Papal decretals rather tend to strengthen 
our confidence in them ? should not the depth of thought 
and apparent contradiction in the sacred writings rather 
go to remind us of the frailty of our nature, and of the 
necessity of purifying our heart, to be able to see and 
comprehend the mysteries of God ? Blessed are the clean 
of heart : for they shall see God. 

Fourth Heresy. — Innovaf or III. saith : "We claim for 
an (Ecumenical Council this authority in matters of faith, 
and no more.'^ 

That sentence is small in size, but pregnant with mon- 
strous evils ; it insinuates that the Church is empowered 
by God to take cognizance of faith or the internal acts of 
the mind only, and that she hath no power over morals or 
external matters ! What is that, but rehearsal of the 
English oath of allegiance, that no foreign prince, prelate. 
State, or potentate hath nor ought to have any power, au- 
thority, or pre-eminence within the realm of England ? 
what is it but a renewal of the 11th of the 39 Articles, 
that faith alone is sufficient for salvation ? what is it but 
the Galilean Declaration of 1682 : That neither St. Peter 
nor the Church hath received from Christ any power, 
direct or indirect, over the temporal matters of kings ? 



BY INNOVATOR III. 231 

1 Cor. xii. 12 : For as the body is one and hath 
many members ; and all the members of the body, whereas 
they are many, yet are one body ; so also in Christ : for 
in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether 
Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free. Verse 25: that 
there might be no schism in the body ; but that the mem- 
bers might be mutually careful one for another. Hence 
the article in the Creed— I BELIEVE ONE HOLY, 
CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. 

Nowhere in Holy Writ do we read of two, but one 
body of Christ, to be ruled by the spiritual power, that is, 
by the Apostles and their successors : nowhere do we 
read that the worldlings are empowered by God to rule 
any portion of the body of Christ. It is true that the 
temporal rulers, Rom. xiii., are Godh ministers^ ai^engers to 
execute wrath upon him that doth evil. They are not, however, 
elevated by the apostle over the body of Christ ; they 
abide still its members, liable, like all others, to its laws 
and observances. They seem to be furnished with no 
legislative, but merely the executive — to execute God's 
wrath upon the evil doers, to compel them to obey the 
Church, under pain of being heathens and publicans. 

What demon has given rise to the idea of two societies 
— Church and State — equally independent in their respect- 
ive spheres ? The notion has not originated from any 
Prophet, Apostle, Pope or Council, but from the French 
atheists in the seventeenth century, who understood that 
their infernal conspiracy against the Christian religion 
had no chance, whilst the clergy and laity, the prelates 
and the king, were mutually careful one for another. 
Consequently they invented Satan's maxim, Divide and 
conquer. They did divide the one Fold, and, in fact, con> 
queredby the invention of the novel and unheard-of scheme 
— Church and State ; two powers, the one spiritual and 
the other temporal : the one to preside, as it were, over 



282 FOUR HERESIES 

the affairs of the soul, and the other to superintend 
those of the body. The result answered the infidePs an- 
ticipations. The King, master of the sword and of the 
various offices, places, and pensions, and commissions in 
the army, navy, excise, and so forth, soon overwhelm the 
spiritual power. And the people, having no longer any- 
thing to hope, nor fear from the Supreme Pontiff, and re- 
ceiving not the usual protection from the Church, aban- 
doned it to its fate and became infidels ; and seeing that 
the king shook off all religious control and acted at will, 
they brought him to the block. Thus have the Gallican 
Liberties played both ways — annihilated both the spiritual 
and temporal powers ; they have created that volcano 
w^iich pours out its burning lava upon Europe at the pre- 
sent time. 

The one body of Christ into which we have been bap- 
tized, consists of sheep and shepherds, mutually connected 
and supplied with spiritual nourishment from the head, 
Christ Jesus. The laity, if not spiritually fed by the pas- 
tors, or if they be separated from them, would relapse into 
atheism; and the clergy, if they be not sustained by the 
flocks, or if they be not recruited from their ranks, would 
soon run out; wherefore, the spiritual and temporal pow- 
ers could not be independent of one another. 

Let us suppose that a Gallican who has professed 
** that the Church has received from Christ no power, 
directly or indirectly, over the temporal matters of Kings,'' 
or the Innovator, who has announced his belief " that an 
(Ecumenical Council has authority in matters of faith, 
but not at all in moral or temporal affairs," become a chap- 
lain to some European Prince, and that he accost him in 
this paternal manner : " Sire, the temporal wealth lavished 
upon you by bountiful Providence for the purpose of 
promoting his own wise end, to feed the hungry, clothe 
the naked, shelter and protect the widows, orphans, and 



BY INNOVATOR III. 233 

the indigent strangers, is perverted by you to the most 
iniquitous, diabolical purposes, to feed and foster your 
sensual appetites, avarice, lust, gluttony, vanity, and, 
worse than all, to keep fast in heresies and schism your- 
self and the people, to the ruin of your immortal souls. 
Being answerable at the tribunal of God for the souls 
intrusted to my pastoral care, it is my duty to impose 
satisfaction, salutary and adequate to your crimes, lest 
by connivance and leniency I would become accessory." 
Con, Trid. Sess, xiv. ch. 8. 

Deaf to all paternal admonitions, the haughty King 
replies : has not the Gallican Declaration of 1682 pro- 
claimed ^Hhat neither the Pope nor the Church have re- 
ceived from the Lord any power whatever, direct or in- 
direct, over the worldly affairs of Kings ?" and has not 
the Innovator in the United States of North America pub- 
lished in a printed book, *^ that an (Ecumenical Council 
has no authority in morals or worldly matters ?" How- 
ever, your Reverence, who are neither a Pope, the Church, 
nor a general Council, but a simple priest, attempt, to 
control me in the use of my temporalities. The club- 
houses, theatres, banks, brothels, revenue, nay, the whole 
population, are my temporal property ; you must not 
meddle with them, or any of them, directly or indirectly; 
but fall into the steps of the reformed ministers, give the 
people their own way, pass judgment, in general, without 
confession, or knowledge of their fitness or unfitness^ 
without probing or healing their wounds. This is an 
awful pit into which the poor chaplain is fallen. By hold- 
ing silence and not standing up opposite to defend the 
truth, he incurs the guilt of the hireling, who flees from 
the approaching wolf ; but by raising his voice against 
the glaring enormities of the great ones, his own thesis is 
thrown into his face — that an (Ecumenical Council, and 
much less he, have no authority but in matters of faith. 



234 FOUR HERESIES 

And if, in despair of effecting any good in the palace, 
he turn his eyes to the people, the difficulties there are not 
less appalling : the gambler, libertine. Sabbath-breaker, 
felon, stage-player, and every other transgressor of God's 
law, will answer, as the King did, that the Declaration 
in France, and the thesis of the Innovator in America, 
allow them to use the King's temporalities at pleasure, 
independent of priests and religion. Really, it would be 
curious how the Innovator would bring himself out of this 
dilemma. He must be well supplied with dust to be 
thrown into our face ; he will not, of course, stand in need 
of regular arguments — minors, majors, premises, conclu- 
sions, and distinctions. 

Thrice happy King and people : you have thrown off 
the yoke of Christ. When you free yourselves from the 
control and guidance of religion, what other rules or 
standard you go by ; when you hear not the Church, are 
you not on a level with the heathens and publicans ? 

Further, all classes find their duties pointed out in the 
law of God : the child is commanded to honor his father 
and mother, Matt. xv. ; the servant to obey his carnal 
master with fear and simplicity of heart, Ephes. vi.; the 
flock to obey their prelates and to be subject to them, for 
they watch, having to render an account of your souls, 
Heb. xiii. But if parents, masters, and prelates are, by 
God's decree, entitled to honor, love, and obedience from 
their subjects, does it follow that they are independent 
in spiritual or temporal matters ? If they command the 
performance of any act that is contrary to the law of 
God, should not their inferiors reply, in the words of St. 
Peter before the Jewish council. Acts, v., We ought to 
obey God rather than men ? And when we read in 1 Pet. ii.: 
Be ye subject therefore to every creature for God's sake, 
whether it be to the King as excelling ; or the governors 



BY INNOVATOR III. 235 

as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for 
the praise of the good, for so is the will of God; are we 
to infer that he is independent of the precepts of reli- 
gion and of the priesthood in regard to his spiritual or 
temporal matters, or that if he command one thing and 
God another, we should not also reply, We ought to 
obey God rather than men ; The King, if a Christian, 
should belong to the one fold of Christ, and hear her laws. 
He that hears not the Church, let him be to thee as the 
heathen and the publican. And if he would hear her 
laws, from whom will he receive them ? From the lips 
of the priest they shall seek the law, Malac. ii. 7 ; Deut. 
xvii. 18. 

Tht mode of settling temporal disputes among the early 

Christians. 

CoNSTiTUTioNEs Apostolorum, Lib. 2, ch. 45. ** Let no 
person have recourse to the judgment of the Gentiles ; 
nay, permit not the secular magistrates to take cogni- 
zance of your causes ; let not the Gentiles know of your 
disputes." 

That Constitution should be imprinted upon every 
man's heart, and posted up in gold letters on his door- 
posts, to be read by himself and his family at their going 
out and coming in. It was not left as dead letters, but 
reduced to practice by the Christians for several ages 
after. 

Con. Hippo. Can. 8t, in Africa^ A. D. 398, decrees: Let 
the Catholic who will bring up his case, whether it be just 
or unjust, to the tribunal of a judge of another faith, be 
excommunicated. 

Con. Hihernicnmj Can. 21, under St. Patrick^ A. D. 450, 
decrees : If any Christian go to law with another Christ- 
ian before the civil judges, instead of submitting his case 
to the judgment of the Church, he shall be excommuni- 
cated- 



236 FOUR HERESIES 

I dwell with spiritual pride on the character of our 
forefathers. They were so submissive to their Apostle, 
and so observant of the doctrine and discipline that came 
down from the holy Apostles, that they left, for several 
centuries, the settlement of all their disputes to their 
venerable clergy. 1 have read in some history, that the 
Irish Viceroy under the Stuarts bitterly complained 
'* that the courts of justice were degraded and abandoned 
because the Popish priests in Ireland adjust all the dis- 
putes, temporal and spiritual, among the people." Pious 
souls I you did not think, with our modern inMel, *' that 
the Apostolical Constitutions are impure and spurious 
sources." 

And it is probable that the converts of St. Augustine 
in England were actuated by the same Apostolical prin- 
ciple ; for no statutes appear in the English law books 
previous to the tenth century. Then there was no sepa- 
ration of Church and State heard of; then all classes 
submitted to the law of God and the Church. But what 
is that wretched land in our days ? It is incumbered 
with a mass of incoherent and contradictory law books, 
among which the most enlightened jurists are puzzled. 
One of their first-rate lawyers told myself in London, in 
the year 1825, that the kingdom will never be happy 
until all their law books will be burnt. Laws are got 
up to plunge the nation into schism, plunder the poor 
and the religious, and to involve the realm into a debt 
that gnaws the vitals of the people, and that will soon 
shake the island to its centre. 

And we know from Devoti, Instit. Ajpost,, Lib, iv.. Sect, 
16 : that in pursuance of the Apostolical Constitutions, 
the people living under the pagan Emperors never carried 
their temporal causes to the heathen magistrates, but had 
them all settled through the clergy. 

B. Augustin, Tom. iii. De Opere Monachorum^ ch. xxviif., 



BY INNOVATOR ill. 237 

saith : ^^ I call the Lord Jesus to witness, that as to my- 
self, I would rather spend some hours daily at manual 
labor in some well-regulated monasteries, with leisure 
during the remaining hours for readi]% and praying, or 
transcribing from holy writ, than to encounter the tiresome 
perplexities of sitting in judgment on other people's tempo- 
ral affairs, or in settling them by mediation ; to which 
troubles has the same ajposth exposed us, certainly not at all 
from his own, but from the will of Him who spoke through 
him ; which troubles, however, the apostle himself encoun- 
tered not, for the course of his apostleship was of another 
character. He said not : If therefore you will have any 
worldly disputes, bring them up to us or constitute us as 
judges ; but to those who are the most contemptible in the 
church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not 
among you one wise man able to judge between brethren, 
but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before un- 
believers ? He therefore would have the pious and faithful, 
who are the truly wise men, arbitrators to such disputes, 
not those who had to travel up and down disseminating 
the gospel. Hence it is nowhere written that he applied 
himself to the settlement of such disputes ; from which 
we cannot excuse ourselves, although being the most con- 
temptible ; because he would have even them to fulfill the 
office if the wise ones be not had, rather than that the af- 
fairs of the Christians be carried to the forum. Which 
labor, however, we gladly undertake, in the hope of reap- 
ing by patience the fruit of eternal life ; for we are the 
servants of Christ, especially unto the weaker members, 
such as we ourselves are in the body." 

Having now seen the fidelity of the early Christians 
to the Apostolical Constitution, let us see the ground 
upon which stands the Constitution itself. 

B. AuGUSTiN, Enchiridion, ch. 78. ^^Dare any of you, 

11* 



238 FOUR HERESIES 

having a matter, 1 Cor. vi., against another, go to be 
judged before the unjust, and not before the saints ? 
If therefore you have judgments of things pertaining to 
this world, set th^m to judge who are the most contempt- 
ible in the Church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, 
that there is not among you any wise man that is able 
to judge between brethren ? But brother goes to law 
with brother, and that before unbelievers. From this 
some person may infer that it is not a sin to have law- 
suits with brethren, provided they carry them not to the 
tribunals outside the Church, if the following words were 
not added : Already indeed there is plainly a fault among yoUj 
that you have law-suits one with another. And some others 
may say in self-justification : My case is a good one ; I 
am wronged ; it is in self-defence I am compelled to seek 
the protection of the law. The Apostle meets such pre- 
tensions by saying : Why do you not rather take the wrong ? 
Why not suffer yourselves rather to be defrauded ? He 
would bring the people back to the Redeemer's doctrine, 
Matt. V. 40 : If any man will contend with thee in judgment 
and take away thy coat^ let him have thy cloak also. And Luke, 
vi. 30 : Of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. 
The Master therefore forbids his disciples to have law- 
suits about worldly property with other men. And the 
Apostle, faithful to his Master's doctrine, declares that 
it is a sin. But whilst he permits such disputes to be 
terminated among brethren by the judgment of brethren 
within the Church, he declares it a terrific sin to carry 
them for decision outside the Church. It is evident that 
he grants his indulgence to the weak. By reason of such 
sins and other smaller ones, which we all commit by 
thoughts and words, we should daily and frequently pray 
to God — Forgive us our trespasses. 

The Innovator saith: *' We claim for an (Ecumenical 
Council this authority in matters of faith, and no more.'' 



BY INNOVATOR III. 239 

Since he refuses unto the general Council any author- 
ity over temporal matters, he should say in what part of 
the Scriptures hath Christ our Lord made a distinction 
between spiritual and temporal matters, or formed two 
independent and co-existent bodies, Church and State, 
with two distinct and separate codes ; the Bible to define 
the affairs of the soul, and the civil code to regulate the 
people's worldly concerns; the Holy Bible to wean man 
from this world towards God and future things, the tem- 
poral laws to draw him back towards the world and the 
devil. On the contrary, it appears that the Lord hath 
instituted but one code, the Holy Bible, in which all classes 
of Christians may learn their respective duties in regard 
to the soul and body, to time and eternity, in regard to 
the neighbor, and to God. 

Christ our Lord hath spent upon earth thirty-three 
years, teaching faith and morals, teaching what things 
we must believe, and what works we must perform. And, 
in reality, faith and morals are inseparably interwoven 
and blended in the divine and ecclesiastical law. As the 
body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is 
dead. James, xi, 26. The Commandments of God are both 
of a spiritual and temporal nature : the first three regu- 
late our faith, or the internal acts of the mind ; and the 
last seven indicate our morals or external relations in 
society. The third Commandment — Rememher that thou 
keep holy the Sabbath day — affords a striking instance of 
the mutual connection of faith and morals ; the internal 
faith in the sanctity of the Lord's Day moves the rational 
creature to pay both mental and bodily, internal and ex- 
ternal adoration on that day to his Creator and Redeemer. 
The inward homage of the heart, apart from the exteinal 
or moral profession, avails not unto salvation ; for with 
the heart we believe unto justice^ but with the mouth confession is 
made unto salvation. Rom. x. 10. The seventh Command- 



240 FOUR HERESIES 

ment — Thou shalt not steal — is another manifest specimen; 
for the belief that neither thieves, nor robbers, nor extor- 
tioners shall enter into the kingdom of God ; that we 
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven until we pay 
the last farthing, influences man to observe justice and 
equity towards his neighbors. The sinful thought, or 
coveting of the neighbor's goods, as well as the external 
acts, or the unlawful taking or retaining of his substance, 
is forbidden. Thus are faith and morals blended and con- 
nected together in the divine law ; so that whosoever 
denies that Christ Jesus has interfered with, or legislated 
upon temporal matters, inevitably loses faith in his legis- 
lation about spiritual affairs also, and becomes a deist. 
Hence the decree in the holy Synod : 

Con. Trid. Sess.Y.j Can. 21. ^'If any man say that Christ 
Jesus had been given by God unto men as a Redeemer, 
in whom they would confide, but not also as a Legislator, 
whom they should obey, let him be anathema.'^ 

The same inseparable connection between faith and 
morals, spiritual and temporal matters, is also manifest 
in the commission given by Christ to the Apostles and 
their successors, Matt, xxviii. 18: All power is given to me 
in heaven and in earth; going, therefore, teach ye all na- 
tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold 
I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the 
world. Remark, that the Twelve, and their Successors, 
until the end of the world, are to teach all nations all the 
commandments of God, without exception; the precepts 
that bear upon morals or temporal matters, as well as 
those that regard faith or spiritual affairs. Remark, also, 
that the temporal rulers, or the laity, were not sent nor 
authorized to teach or expound any portion of the law or 
of the gospels,. 



BY INNOVATOR III. 241 



The Church is empowered hy God to expound^ define^ and 
determine questions of faith and morals. 

Num. xi. 16: And the Lord said to Moses, gather unto 
me seventy men of the ancients of Israel, whom thou 
knowest to be ancients and masters of the people; and 
thou shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of 
the covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee, 
that I may come down and speak with thee; and I will 
take of thy spirit and will give to them, that they may 
bear with thee the burden of the people, and thou mayest 
not be burdened alone. 

Deut. xvii. 8. If thou perceive that there be among 
you a hard and doubtful matter in judgment between 
blood and blood, cause and cause, leprosy and leprosy ; 
and thou see that the words of the judges within thy gate 
do vary ; arise and go up to the place which the Lord 
thy God shall choose ; and thou shalt come to .the priests 
of the Levitical race, and to the judge that shall be at that 
time : and thou shalt ask of them and they shall show 
thee the truth of the judgment : and thou shalt do what- 
soever they shall say, .... and thou shalt follow their 
sentence : neither shalt thou decline to the right hand 
nor to the left hand. But after he (king) is raised to the 
throne of his kingdom, he shall copy out to himself the 
Deuteronomy of this law in a volume, taking the copy of 
the priests of the Levitical tribe ; and he shall have it 
with him and shall read it all the days of his life. 

Malac. ii. 7. The lips of the priest shall keep know- 
ledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth. 

Matt, xviii. It. And if he will not hear them, tell the 
church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be 
to thee as the heathen and publican. Amen, I say to you, 
whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound 



242 FOUR HERESIES 

also in heaven ; and whatsoever you shall loose upon 
earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. 

Matt, xxiii. 2. The Scribes and the Pharisees have 
sitten on the chair of Moses. All things therefore what- 
soever they shall say to you, observe and do ; but ac- 
cording to their works do ye not. 

Remember, that the people are expressly commanded 
by God, in the law of Moses, to submit all doubtful and 
hard cases, without appeal, to the judgment of the priest ; 
that the king himself seated on the throne must take 
the sacred volume from them ; that he and the people 
must seek from them the sense and meaning, integrity 
and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures. In short, that 
all disputes, spiritual and temporal, are left without ap- 
peal to the priest^s judgment. 

Remember, secondly, that the holy prophet Malachias 
declares that the people shall seek the law at the mouth 
of the priest, because his lips shall keep knowledge ; and 
because he is the angel, that is, the messenger, of God. 
Observe that the prophet makes no limitation or excep- 
tion ; but says that all sorts of things, spiritual and 
temporal ; and all classes of persons, kings and people, are 
to be regulated and guided by the messenger of the Lord. 

Remember, thirdly, that the Lord by the mouth of the 
evangelist Matthew teaches the same doctrine — that who- 
soever hears not the church on all questions, not only 
spiritual but also temporal, must be deemed as the hea- 
then and publican ; and that the church has from Him 
full power and authority to loose or bind all persons with- 
out exception ; and to decide questions of all sorts, 
whether spiritual or temporal. Whatsoever you shall loose 
upon earth, shall he loosed also in heaven. Hence flows the 
holy and blessed definition of the — 

Con. Trid. Sess. IV. '' Moreover, for counteracting re^t? 



BY INNOVATOR III. 243 

less geniuses, the holy Synod decrees that no one relying 
upon his own prudence shall dare to twist to his own 
senses the Holy Scriptures on matters of faith and morals 
tending to the edification of the Christian doctrine, in op- 
position to that sense which holy Mother the Church held 
and holds, whose province it is to judge of the true 
sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures ; or even, 
in opposition to the unanimous consent of the holy Fathers, 
dare to interpret the same Holy Scriptures." 

But the word of God, which includes the Scriptures 
and Tradition, contains the whole Christian doctrine, 
which is reduced by our pious Father under these four 
heads— The Apostles' Creed, The Commandments, The 
Sacraments, and the Lord's Prayer. And whereas it is 
the province of our holy Mother, the Church, to judge of 
the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures on 
matters of faith and morals tending to the edification of 
the Christian doctrine, it is her duty to expound and in- 
terpret such of the Commandments as bear upon morals 
and temporal matters, and to enforce with penances and 
the spiritual sword the observance of them. 

Further, whosoever imagines that the Church has no 
divine right or authority to define, decree, or declare on 
moral or temporal matters, must consistently discard, by 
wholesale, the decrees and definitions of the Church for 
eighteen hundred years on all matters spiritual and tem- 
poral, and become a doubter in all Church authority- 
become an infidel. 

To understand this saying, you are to know that the 
Church laws are of two sorts— some regard faith and 
spiritual affairs ; and the other some, morals and temporal 
matters : those determine man's duty to God ; and these, 
his offices towards his neighbors. But by taking in re- 
view the body of the Canon law, you will find the two^ 
thirds of the Church decrees and definitions bearing upon 



244 POUR HERESIES 

morals, or worldly affairs ; although, strictly speaking, 
the spiritual and worldly Canons are so blended and inter- 
woven, that the former influence more or less our social 
and worldly duties, and the latter are animated by, and 
built upon, some article of faith : for example, — 

Council OF Nice, Oan. 17. *' Many ecclesiastics, actu- 
ated by love of sordid gain and forgetful of the divine 
precept, saying : Ps. xiv.. Who hath not put out his money 
to usury, exact, when they lend, a per centage, the great 
and general Council has justly decreed, that if any clergy- 
man be, subsequent to this decree, detected receiving 
usury, or seeking sordid gain by any sort of traffic what- 
ever, he be suspended and deposed." 

See how the Canon of the great Council in regard to 
the external morals of the priests is built upon the 14th 
Psalm ; that faith and morals are blended together, so 
are they in every other Canon, that it is impossible to 
find or conceive any one which may be deemed purely 
spiritual without the admixture of worldly tendency, or 
any one totally temporal without the salt of religion. But 
as there is no rule to distinguish the Canons purely spirit- 
ual from those that are exclusively temporal, these that 
bear upon spiritual matters alone from those that fall 
upon temporal affairs only, he who denies the Church any 
authority to define, decree, and declare upon temporal 
matters, must deny her any divine right to issue decrees 
or definitions on spiritual concerns also, and fall into open 
infidelity. 

Verily, the man that discards the lordship of Christ 
Jesus over temporal matters, will soon reject the authority 
of the body of Christ, that is, of the Church. From this 
diabolical notion rushed forth the French Eevolution in the 
last century, which demolished the laws of God and man, 
all rights and titles, deluged the streets of Paris with 



BY INNOVATOR III. 245 

blood, and hurled into eternity all ranks and stations, 
kings and queens, nobles and bishops, nuns and friars. 
And to our grief the same infernal tragedy is being pro- 
posed and recommended in these days by nominal Christ- 
ians. Public editors and orators have the madness and 
iniquity to laud and urge on in foreign countries rebel- 
lions and insurrections, that may bring again life and 
property under the mercy of murderers, robbers, and 
church plunderers. 

Whilst the Kulers and the people remained convinced 
that, for the attainment of peace and equity here, and sal- 
vation hereafter, they should love and serve God, revere 
and obey his Church, the spirit of religion pervaded the 
whole community and sanctified the public laws and in- 
stitutions. Then, the rulers and the priesthood went hand 
in hand to preserve the weak and the simple from the 
wiles and might of the knowing ones. Holy Mother, the 
Church, stood as a mediator between the Ruler and the 
ruled ; tempering him, if cruel or oppressive, and them, 
if brutal or seditious. She kept the different members of 
the body of Christ, within their respective spheres, from 
tearing and mangling one another. Hence, the deadly 
hatred of the emissaries of Satan, the lovers of anarchy, 
against the Pope and Bishops. 

The believers in Christ's lordship over temporal and 
spiritual matters alike, hold that the moral and social re- 
lations are but an index of the true faith, or rather faith 
itself reduced to practice ; that the Lord is the owner, 
and we the managers, or stewards, of whatever talents 
and property we possess ; that the Master going to the 
far country, to ascend into heaven, distributed among us 
the talents to trade with, and that he will again call for 
the same talents and the profits. They also say, with 
Zaccheus, Luke, xix. : Behold, Lord, half our property we 
give to the poor, and if we have wronged any man of any- 



246 FOUR HERESIES 

thing, we restore four-fold. In holding it as an essen- 
tial principle to restore the ill-gotten goods to the owners, 
if they could be found, otherwise to the poor, or to char- 
itable purposes, they are guided by the holy Catholic 
Church. St. Augustine, epist. liv., ad Macedonium : " If the 
other man's property, whereby the sin is committed, be 
not restored, when it can be restored, the penance is not 
real, but fictitious. And if it be really performed, the 
sin is not remitted, unless the thing taken be restored ; 
but, as I have said, when it can be restored. For it 
generally happens, that the person who took it, loses it 
through others, or by his own extravagance, and has not 
any means to make restitution. Surely \^e could not say 
to such a person : Restore what thou hast taken, unless 
we think that he has the means and denies them. As 
to the doctors, law^^ers, and other officials, who, in the 
course of their practice, make property by exorbitant fees, 
it is easier for them, when they change their life, and turn 
to God, to bestow what they had unjustly amassed, upon 
the poor, as they should their own property, than to re- 
store it to the owners. And in regard to the people who, 
contrary to the law of civil society, have gathered prop- 
erty by theft, usury, extortion, fraud, or oppression, it 
ought to be restored rather than bestowed, in imitation 
of the publican Zaccheus.'' Tkou shalt not overreach or 
circumvent thy neighbor in any business : for God is the avenger 
of all such things, saith St. Paul. 

Although the divine Legislator might, on various 
titles, claim our unqualified obedience to his law, first, 
for having created us out of nothing to his own image 
and likeness, when he had no need of us; second, for hav- 
ing endowed us with sense and reason, free-will and un- 
derstanding; third, for having bestowed upon us a body, 
with all its admirable organs, for the fulfillment of the 
spiritual and corporal functions; fourth, for having pro- 



BY INNOVATOR III. 24t 

vided this earthly paradise for our abode, the sun, moon, 
and stars to enlighten and vivify us, the air and water to 
cool and refresh us, Gen. i. 29 : And God said, Behold I 
have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, 
and all the trees that have in themselves seed of their 
own kind, to be your meat, and to all the beasts of the 
earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move 
upon the earth wherein there is life, that they may have to 
feed upon; fifth, when the fullness of the time was come, 
God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 
that he might redeem them who were under the law, and 
that we might receive the adoption of sons, and be en- 
abled to cry, Abba, Father; lastly, for having formed his 
one fold, the holy Catholic Church, as the depository of 
his law and his graces, the gospels and sacraments, for 
our sanctification. These manifold titles notwithstanding, 
our good Father promises to the observers of his law, re- 
wards, both spiritual and temporal. Jesus said to him. If 
any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father and 
I will love him, and we will come to him, and will make 
our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not 
my words; and the word which you heard is not mine, but 
the Father's, who sent me. John, xv. 23. And again, Jesus 
said to them, Every one that hath left house, or brethren, 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, 
and shall possess life everlasting. Matt. xix. 29. 

But alas ! many false prophets, as it had been pre- 
dicted by Christ our Lord, Matt. xxiv. 11, rose and se- 
duced many; and the depraved people and corrupt time 
foretold by the apostle, 2 Tim. iv. 3, have arrived ; and 
the dreadful revolt and reign of antichrist, prophesied by 
the same apostle, 2 Thess. ii. 3, seems to be not far distant. 

So far are they gone astray, that they say : If Christ 
come again upon earth, he will, there is no doubt, alter 



248 FOUR HERESIES, ETC. 

his law, and make a new edition to suit' the change in the 
times and habits of the people. Poor infidels 1 if the 
divine Legislator would come again upon earth and com- 
ply with your wishes, you would no more submit to the 
fresh gospels than you do to these that are extant. 
Could they who desire a change in the Christian religion 
be called Christians ? 



ABSURDITIES OF, ETC. 249 



CHAPTER XII. 

ABSURDITIES OF A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 

Mr. J. K. Converse, the minister alluded to, was 
pastor of the Calvinistic congregation at Burlington, 
Vermont. He delivered an intolerant sermon on the 
24th June, 1834, at Milton, which so well pleased his 
hearers, that they requested the copy for publication. It 
brought to their recollection the olden times, and con- 
vinced them that the spirits of the Pilgrims were yet 
alive, and that the Blue Laws, Witchcraft, the Cambridge 
and Seabrook platforms, are to be played over again ; that 
the Catholics and Quakers are to be hanged and hunted 
out of the commonwealth, never more to be tolerated in 
this Puritanical land. So enamored was the goodly flock 
with his exhibition, that they would not place the candle 
under the tub, but upon the candlestick, that it might shine 
upon the brotherhood far and near. 

However, unless their heart is grown gross, and with 
their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they 
have shut, lest perhaps they should see with their eyes, 
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart 
and should be converted, a little reflection upon his ser- 
mon, without further research or inquiry, would con- 
vince them that the preacher deceives them, saying : 
Peace, peace, and there is no peace ; that their edifice 
is built upon sand, with dry walls, merely daubed over 
with untempered mortar. If I have in a»y measure aid- 
ed or given them the clue to arrive at the truth, I shall 
consider my feeble exertions amply requited ; but if, con- 
trary to my anticipation, blame and obloquy come upon 



250 ABSURDITIES OF 

me, I must not be down-hearted, for suffering has been 
always the lot of all persons who defend the truth and 
combat errors. For unto you it is given for Chrises sake not 
only to believe in him hut also to suffer for him. I published a 
reply at his own door, at Burlington, in the year 1834, 
and another in the same town, in 1837. Although he 
made no rejoinder to either publication, and as his ser- 
mon may be interesting to posterity, I give it a third 
edition. 

Mr. J. K, Converse saith : '' The Christian religion is the 
electricity of the political and moral world ; it may be 
either a gentle spirit breathing meekness, good will, and 
charity; or it may be a dark, intolerant, and fierce fanat- 
icism, blighting all that is fair, and defacing all that is 
lovely in the moral world." 

That his own system is dark, intolerant, and fierce 
fanaticism, tending to inflate and electrify his followers 
with hatred and fury towards all other people, is manifest 
from the tenor of his discourse ; from his far-fetched rea- 
sons to identify tyranny and despotism with all persons 
who are not of Calvin^s notions. 

He continues : *' The power of this monarchy (meaning 
the Church of Rome) grew from increasing ignorance 
and corruption, until it arose to a frightful despotism, 
trampling on the necks of Kings and Princes. If Cath- 
olicity should ever become the prevalent religion of the 
States, it would assimilate our politics to its own spirit by 
fire and faggot, by the inquisition and the sword." Ser- 
7non, pp. 18, 19. 

Why all this whining of the Republican preacher for 
the sufferings of the necks of Kings and Princes ? He 
certainly hath more sympathy for their necks than the 
Calvinistic Puritans had for the tender neck of King 
Charles I. He may dread that the regicide perpetrated 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 251 

by his fathers will be visited on their children to the third 
and fourth generation ; and that he ought to do penance 
for their iniquity, and adopt a contrary course. Let him, 
with all my heart, go ahead. But see his inconsistency. 
Now he is out of temper because the Church of Rome 
trampled in former times upon the necks of Kings, 
and then he is in tremor lest the same king-trampling 
Church bring kings and royal despotism into these States. 
But he is a little too late. What a pity that he was not 
living in the year ItYG, when the sages were assembled 
in Philadelphia to compose the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. Methinks I see him entering into that far-famed 
hall, with a firm step and bold attitude. 

Converse enters, and saith: Pshaw, gents, it is reported 
in the street that your sole object here is to maltreat and 
depose our good father, the King of England. 

Washington inquires his name and motives. 

Converse replies: I am the respected pastor of the 
Second Congregational Meeting-house at Burlington, 
Vermont. 

Hancock speaks: What could move jovi to obtrude on 
our deliberations in this hall ? 

Converse VQ'^Me^: My innate tenderness for the necks 
of kings and princes moves me to come and caution you 
against the cruel steps which you are going to take 
against our good old king. Although I am the lineal 
descendant of the Puritans, who hung without remorse 
Catholics and Quakers, I hold in esteem and veneration 
the necks of kings and princes. 

Carroll interferes: Is not the killing and deposing of 
kings and tyrants a favorite principle with your persua- 
sion, and did they not reduce it into practice in England 
and Scotland ? 

Converse Yeiom^: If in their fury and madness they 
beheaded Popish kings, we should treat- our Protestant 



252 ABSURDITIES OF 

king with leniency and mercy: the times are altered; the 
sons should be more charitable than the sires. 

Franklin^ somewhat excited, saith: We have had enough 
of this fulsome, fanatical nonsense; begone speedily, you 
popinjay, lest you be rough handled. 

Converse exit, in haste. 

Enormous cost of Protestancy in the United States. 

What a libel he utters against Christendom, who were 
all Catholics until the Reformation, and who are yet seven 
to ten against all other denominations. Every impartial 
man who takes in review these States throughout, must 
allow that no people in the world are more oppressed by 
the preachers than the different sects of this country. 
Our great Republic, embracing the extensive regions from 
New-Brunswick to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific Ocean, about three thousand miles one way and 
seventeen hundred the other, consists of thirty-two States, 
which are subdivided into townships about six miles 
square. Yermont, (with which I am acquainted,) a mere 
speck on the general map, contains about 24 1 townships, 
in each of which is a village, and in several are two or 
three. The village is, in general, split into many reli- 
gious sects — Episcopalians, Methodists, Calvinists, Bap- 
tists, Unitarians, Universalists, &c. The reader must 
not look for accuracy in my statistics ; for the sects 
monthly shift and change from side to side, grow up and 
disappear again, like the mushrooms that blow and wither 
with the seasons. 

Now, supposing that there are four villages in each 
township, and that the village hath four sects, and that 
each sect hath one preacher ; the township hath therefore 
sixteen preachers, and, of course, each preacher hath a 
wife and four little ones, although the Bible makes no 
mention of the Apostle^s wives or children. In averaging 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 253 

the children at four, I may be under the mark, for I 
know one sectarian minister in Vermont who has eleven, 
and another, fourteen children. According to my calcu- 
lation, each township hath to feed, and clothe, and 
lodge sixteen ministers, sixteen wives, and sixty-four 
little ones, that is, ninety-six persons, for religion sake ; 
and therefore the religious establishments of the 24 1 
townships of the State of Vermont amounts to 23,712 
persons ; and by multiplying 23,712 by 32, you make out 
858,784 religious persons in the United States of North 
America, 

Again ; by multiplying the 247 townships by 16, you 
make out 3,952 ministers in the small State of Vermont ; 
and by multiplying the 3,952 by 32, you find 1,054,464 
preachers in the United States of North America. And 
by supposing that each minister gets $1,000 salary for the 
support of his family, you will find that the whole staff 
of ministers annually costs, for the thirty-two States, the 
pretty little sum of $1,054,464,000 ! 

I use even numbers for simplicity sake. The last 
census makes the population twenty-three millions ; and, 
supposing that the women are ten millions, and the Catho- 
lics three millions, that leaves ten millions of men, from 
which are to be deducted five millions who care for no re- 
ligious system ; this leaves the genuine Protestants at 
five millions ; from which deduct one million children, and 
the Protestants are reduced to four millions, who have 
to meet the aforesaid pretty sum of $1,054,464,000 annu- 
ally, together with the manifold extra bills for Bible So- 
cieties, Missionary Societies, Tract Societies, Abolition So- 
cieties, Camp Meetings, Protracted Meetings, for building 
and repairing the Meeting-houses, and so forth. This is 
really a hard case, a burden too heavy for any people. 
Whilst they are sunk to the very ground by the weight 
of the priests and priestesses, and their little ones, their 

12 



254 ABSURDITIES OF 

attention is constantly drawn to countries far beyond the 
seas ; hideous pictures of priests, nuns, and friars in China, 
India, or Burmah, or some other unknown places are held 
up ; so that they are broug-ht at last to imagine themselves 
in the enjoyment of real liberty. 

What ! no Christian in the whole world for fifteen hun- 
dred years knew what civil liberty was ; or cared about 
it until Calvin sprung up, in the year 1509 ; or until the 
arrival of the worthies who hatched the Blue Laws of 
New-England I Neither Alfred,. Canute, Edward the 
Confessor, William the Conqueror, nor the Barons or 
Bishops who wrested Magna Charta from King John ; 
Theodosius, nor Constantine in Rome ; nor the Carrolls 
or Bolivar in America ; nor the Augustines, or Grego- 
ries, or Jerome, or St, Thomas, understood or cared for 
religious or civil science ; no, not one Catholic in any 
corner of Christendom minded the liberties of the people,, 
until the Calvinist Preacher, Mr. Converse, mounts the 
stage, in the town called Burlington, Yermont. Happy 
Burlington, with thy bright constellation I Thy fame, 
thy name, thy renown, will shine from pole to pole. 

How fhas it happened that Genoa and Venice, that 
were for ages blooming Republics in the .very lap of the 
Catholic Church, lost their liberty? Perhaps through 
priestly influence or Catholic principles ! 1 remember 
well how Genoa liad been, after the fall of Napoleon in 
Waterloo, handed over, principally by the influence of 
Castlereagh in the Congress of Vienna, to the King of 
Sardinia. Did priestly influence or Catholic principles, not 
the horrid intrigue of the Prussian Calvinistic King, occa- 
sion the destruction of the Polish liberties three years ago ? 

If by civil liberty he means that liberty or license 
assumed by Sectarians to do whatever they please, to re- 
ject the merit of good works, to plunder and grind the 
defenceless poor, he may indeed have some little rea- 



A CALVINISTIG MINISTER. 255 

son to tremble for the growth of Catholic principles. For 
the Catholic principles are, that God will render unto 
every man according to his works ; that if we give but 
a cup of cold water for God's sake, we will receive our 
reward ; that he who soweth sparingly, shall also reap 
sparingly ; that by feeding, clothing, and harboring the 
indigent poor, we will receive life eternal. Numerous 
were, at all times, the instances in the Catholic Church 
of firm belief in the merit of good works ; millions there 
were in all ages who confessed that they were strangers 
and pilgrims upon earth, looking for a city that has foun- 
dations, whose builder and maker is God. Here is the 
good pastor whose spouse is Christ, and his children the 
flock ; he leaves not the kindred heirs '' the oblations of 
the faithful, the price of sin, and the patrimony of the 
poor ;" but expends it in feeding, clothing, and housing 
Christ in the person of his little ones ; that when the 
Lord will return from the wedding-feast, he will receive 
a crown of glory : and there is the rich glutton, dressed 
in purple and fine linen, and feasting sumptuously every 
day ; will not he at the hour of death make provision for 
poor Lazarus, who would receive him into the bosom of 
Abraham ? Here, again, is the unjust steward, who had 
all along kept the five talents buried in the ground, kept 
them for selfish purposes, for making more riches unto 
himself, not unto the Master ; who had held them in his 
own hands, swelling by fraud, usury, extortion ; applied 
them not to works of mercy ; but who now, when the 
Master calls for the account, seeing the vanity of riches 
and worldly grandeur, turns his mind upon future things, 
and makes friends with the mammon of iniquity,— who 
would receive him into the eternal dwellings ? And be- 
hold yonder the pious lady, in tears upon the rivers of 
Babylon ; there she sat and wept, when she remembered 
Sion. Can she sing the song of the Lord in a strange 



256 ABSURDITIES OF 

land? As the deer panteth for the living stream, she 
longs for Mount Sion and the city of the living God, the 
heavenly Jerusalem, and the company of many thousands 
of angels, and the Church of the first born, who are writ- 
ten in heaven, and for God, the judge of all, and the spirits 
of the just made perfect, and for Jesus, the mediator of 
the New Testament. Will not the pious soul feed, and 
clothe, and house Christ in the persons of his little ones ? 

This lively faith in the merit of good works gave rise, 
in all parts of the British islands, to asylums and hospi- 
tals for the religious, widows, orphans, sick, and the aged, 
and rendered needless poor-rates or compulsory charity. 
See Cohbetfs Hist. Reform., Part 2. But alas I when old 
Harry made himself spiritual head, and constituted clergy 
to his own taste, they have discarded the merit of good 
works, and substituted Calvin^s maxim, the 11th of the 
39 Articles : ** We are accounted righteous before God, 
only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 
by faith ; and not for our own works or deservings. 
Wherefore that we are justified by faith only, is a whole- 
some doctrine and very full of comfort." 

This infernal maxim was not left as a dead letter ; it 
soon produced its bitter fruit : the believers that the 
merit of Christ alone saves them, without any co-opera- 
tion on their part, will not care for doing good or shun- 
ning evil, will not stop at any crime, however horrible. 
Wherefore they upset the religious principles of their 
ancestors ; they despoil and demolish the foundations of 
the poor; and continue, from that day to this, rioting in 
the sacrilegious plunder. Wo to the shepherds of Israel, 
that feed themselves ! Should not the flocks be fed by 
the shepherds ? Shepherds they are not, but wolves that 
come to disperse and destroy. 

Take another instance: on the discovery of Canada, the 
French Kings and noblemen appropriated lands in all parts 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 257 

of the Lower Province for the education and maintenance 
of the poor, appointing the Jesuits as administrators. But 
the English Protestants, having afterwards conquered the 
colony, true to their maxim, seized the *' Jesuits'" pro- 
perty, so they called the charitable foundations, of which 
they held possession until the year 1831, when King Wil- 
liam IV., either through love of justice, or as a peace- 
offering to the murmuring Canadians, restored a great 
part of the plunder for the original purposes. That to 
despoil the poor is palatable to the sectarians, as it is to 
the Episcopalians, seems to be evident from two facts : 
first, because they never write nor preach against it ; 
and second, because they are never compelled at the hour 
of death, nor at any other time, to restore any ill-gotten 
goods, nor to make compensation to any injured^neighbor. 
Thrice happy people, who have got rid of the fear of 
future judgment, and assumed the liberty of the flesh — 
liberty to act as you please. 

I must put upon record one specimen of their cherished 
liberty which occurred, to my own known knowledge, at 

Essex, near Burlington, in the year 1832. Mr. B , one 

of the first settlers of the town, who always held forth 
the fair side, and who had been therefore looked upon 
as *' a pretty clever man," ^^a smart fellow," gained exten- 
sive credit. But at the approach of death, kind Provi- 
dence, who wills not the death of the sinner, but that we 
all be converted and live, bestowed upon him two months' 
sickness, as if to prepare himself for eternity. A believer 
in God, immortality of the soul, and future judgment, 
would look into his conscience during that respite, and 
see if there be any speck or spot on his baptismal robe; 
strive to wash them away in the laver of penance, settle 
with his adversary, and then look for mercy towards 
Christ Jesus, who died for sinners on the cross. He acted 
rather the unbeliever ; although he enjoyed his mental 



258 ABSURDITIES OF 

faculties to the last hour, and being convinced of his near 
dissolution, his thoughts were downwards upon worldly- 
affairs : he assigns his estates, goods, and chattels to the 
different branches of his family; and when all things were 
beyond the reach of his creditors, he calls for the Method- 
ist minister, Mr. C , to prepare him for death. The 

infernal preacher paid him in his sickness three visits, 
having aflSxed the seal of religion to his ungodly Will. 
And thus has Mr. B , after having spunged that vicin- 
ity of $53,000, ruined several, and especially a Burling- 
ton merchant, from whom he filched his entire stock in 
trade, $11,000, appeared before the just Judge, where the 
false preacher shall not avail him ; where gold and silver 
is to him more bitter than gall. It is written : Be at 
agreement with thy adversary betimes whilst thou art 
in the way with him, lest thou be cast into prison, from 
which thou shalt not go out till thou shalt pay the last 
farthing. Alas I poor Mr. B is gone, and no agree- 
ment with his adversaries is made : but he was sanc- 
tioned by his false teacher. The blind leading the blind, 
will they not both fall into the pit ? Both the one and the 
other were blind infidels. 

Whilst he would wrong his own soul and enrich his 
children at the expense of his creditors, did not the cau- 
tion of the wise man come to his memory, Bccl. xiv. 4 : 
He that gathereth together by wronging his own soul, 
gathereth for others, and another will squander away his 
goods rioting. — Eccl. x. 8. A kingdom is translated from 
one people to another, because of injustice, and wrongs, and 
injuries, and divers deceits ; but nothing is more wicked 
than the covetous man. — Wisd. iv. 3. The multiplied brood 
of the wicked shall not thrive, and bastard slips shall not 
take deep root nor any fast foundation. And if they flour- 
ish in branches for a time, yet, standing not fast, they shall 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 259 

be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds 
they shall be rooted out. 

The above is a pretty fair specimen of the public cus- 
tom. I put it upon record, in the hope that it may open 
the eyes of posterity to the precipice that is before them. 
Robberies, fraud, and extortion are perpetrated without 
disguise in open day, whilst compensations and restitu- 
tions are never heard of. Bank expansions, curtailments, 
panics, and revulsions are of daily occurrence ; masses 
of the industrious classes are allured by fine promises into 
the manufacturing towns, and soon again discharged, with- 
out friends or means, on th^ wide world. Mills now in full 
blast will soon be suspended. Nobody knows the amount 
of his substance, or what it may be worth at the end of 
the year ; terror and dismay is visible on every face ; they 
have laws and tribunals to catch minor culprits, such as 
hen stealers, sheep stealers, and so forth, but neither law, 
judge, nor jury to punish felons on a large scale, such as 
bankers who sweep away millions and then suspend, con- 
vulse the whole community, prostrate trade and commerce, 
famish thousands, and shake the country to its centre. 

Protestantcy, by confounding right and wrong, justice 
and injustice, by representing the thief and knave as a 
pretty clever man, a smart fellow, has ruined the whole 
world. Every country in which it gains the sway looks 
as if inhabited by hordes of Arabian robbers, not by Bible 
readers. They have Bible, Tract, Abolition, and Tempe- 
rance societies, but no society against usury, fraud, or 
extortion. It would be really fortunate for the world if 
Protestants lay aside the Christian mask and name, and 
declare openly for heathenism ; for then people would be 
on their guard and take no impression from their doings 
or sayings. But whilst they affect veneration for the 
Bible and the Christian religion, for which they show 
utter contempt in practice, their example and dealings 
are most pernicious. 



260 ABSURDITIES OF 

Restitution and Compensation, 

Had Mr. B for his spiritual guide a Catholic 

priest, he would have made ample compensation unto all 
persons whom he had wronged, and would not leave this 
world loaded with other people's property. Kow, see 
the grounds for requiring restitution from the penitents. 
God hath made man for society, and willed that the mem- 
bers of that society be linked together by the band of 
charity, that seeketh not her own but the things that are 
Christ's ; that they have but one heart and one soul ; 
that they live in peace, union, and harmony. But no sin 
is more destructive to the tranquility of civil society 
than the passion of coveting and stealing one another's 
property ; it is productive of hatred, quarrels, and retali- 
ation. The practice of pilfering, cheating, and extorting 
by violence the neighbor's property is peculiar only to 
unbelievers ; it is abhorrent to Christians. Kind Provi- 
dence, in his infinite love for men, hath thrown a fence 
round our persons and reputation by these two command- 
ments : Thou shalt not kill ; Thou shalt not commit adultery ; 
and he places a guard, as it were, over property, by add- 
ing : Tho7i shalt not steal; and. Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbor's goods. Neither thieves nor the covetous shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven. We are to know that the word 
theft means to take away the neighbor's property pri- 
vately and unknown to him, and the unlawful retention 
of his substance against his consent is rapine. Rapine 
or extortion, which signifies to take away the neighbor's 
substance openly by violence, is a more grievous sin than 
theft, because the crime of contumely, or personal con- 
tempt, is added to that of injustice. To enumerate the 
various modes of theft invented by the ingenuity of 
avarice, which is skilled in all the arts of gleaning to 
gether by fraud and knavery the fruits of other men's 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 261 

honest industry, is too tedious and inconsistent with my 
present object. However, let me request of all traders 
and traflSckers, if they would appear before the throne of 
God unpolluted by their neighbor's substance, to peruse 
the Catechism of the Council of Trent on Theft, transla- 
ted by the Reverend Mr. Donovan. That the thief, return- 
ing to God and desiring to save his soul, has, besides the 
restitution of what he unjustly possesses, to repair all the 
losses which he had occasioned, is evident from the sacred 
oracles. 

Exod. xxii, 1. If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and 
kill or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and 
four sheep for one sheep. 

Num. V. 7. Say to the children of Israel : When a man 
or woman shall have committed any of all the sins that 
men are wont to commit, and by negligence shall have 
transgressed the commandment of the Lord and ofiended, 
they shall confess their sin and restore the principal it- 
self, and the fifth part over and above, to him against 
whom they have sinned. But if there be no one to receive 
it, they shall give it to the Lord, and it shall be the priest's. 

2 Kings, xii. 6. He shall restore the ewe four-fold, be- 
cause he did this thing and had no pity. 

Prov. vi. 31. The fault is not so great when a man 
hath stolen ; for he stealeth to fill his hungry soul ; and 
if he be taken he shall restore seven-fold, and shall give 
up all the substance of his house. 

Luke, xix. 8. But Zaccheus, standing, said to the Lord, 
Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and 
if I have wronged any man of any thing I restore him 
four-fold. 

1 Thess. iv, 6. This is the will of God, that no man 
overreach or deceive his brother in business, because the 
Lord is the avenger of these things, as we have told you 
before and testified. 

12* 



262 ABSURDITIES OF 

St. Augustine ad Macedonium, Epist. 54. ** If the neigh- 
bor's thing for which a sin is committed, is not restored, 
when it can be restored, there is no real penance, but the 
shadow of it. And if it be really performed, the sin is not 
forgiven unless the thing taken be restored ; however, as 
I have already said, when it can be restored. For it 
generally happens that the thief loses it again, either by 
extravagance or through other rogues, having no other 
property to make restitution with. Certainly we cannot 
say to him : Restore what you have taken, unless we 
know that he has and is however unwilling to restore." — 
Quoted in Gratian, 14, quest. 6, ch. 1. 

Mr. J. K. Converse saith : *' And here I must be dis- 
tinctly understood : my remarks are aimed at high church 
principles, at them alonej wherever they are found, whe- 
ther in the Episcopal or Presbyterian Church ; and they 
are found in both. Such men as Hale, &c., were sound 
Episcopalians, and pious, faithful sons of the church. 
They held that the ordinations and sacraments of the Dis- 
senters were just as valid as their own. With such Epis- 
copalians I have not one word of controversy. I love 
them and hail them as brethren, I invite them to our com- 
munion, and as cheerfully bid my own members go to 
theirs." — Sermon, jp. 21. 

Hence, we see that some naughty Episcopalians and 
Presbyterians are also a scarecrow to the Calvinist. 
Why not, ye foolish people, enter into close and indisso- 
luble bond of union with him ? why not form spiritual fel- 
lowship with him ? particularly as it is within your power 
to do so ; as you can purchase his sincere friendship upon 
such easy terms — by merely declaring that the Calvin- 
istic ordinations and sacraments are just as valid as your 
own ? And you, stupid Calvinists, why uphold at great 
expense separate ministers and meetings, if the Episco- 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 263 

palians or any demi-Episcopalians, Presbyterians or any 
demi-Presbyterians, be your brethren in spirituals ; if 
they hold such doctrine and worship that he deems it 
unnecessary to hold with them one word of controversy ; 
and, if he would cheerfully bid his people to go to their 
communion ? As the transition from one meeting-house 
to another may be effected without the sacrifice of either 
religious principles, honor, or dignity, I cannot conceive 
what would prevent you to unite in love and friendship, 
to form an alliance defensive and offensive. You can 
cast lots whether the Calvinist, or Presbyterian, or Epis- 
copalian ministers may be discarded. No matter which 
of them go. The absurdities in the following articles are 
so numerous and glaring, that I shall quote him more 
fully, lest it may be thought that I misunderstand or mis- 
state him. 

Mr. J. K. Converse saith : " I think high-church princi- 
ples ought to be renounced, because they break up this 
happy communion of Christians. That I may be distinctly 
understood, I will here present a brief contrast of low and 
high church principles. Low-churchmen hold that all 
ecclesiastical power is vested in the church ; high-church- 
men, that it belongs to the clergy. 

*^ The low-Churchman believes that no particular form 
of Church government is prescribed in the New Testa- 
ment ; the high-Churchraan, that the Episcopal form with 
three orders is of divine appointment, and that without 
it there can be no Church." 

** The low-Churchman acknowledges as ministers of 
the gospel, all who, with the formal consent of any Christ- 
ian society, after ordination jby the laying on of the hands 
of the presbytery, truly preach the gospel ; he acknow- 
ledges all as fellow-Christians who repent and live holy 
lives, and that their sacraments are as valid as his own : 



264 ABSURDITIES OF 

the high-Churchman teaches that none are to be acknow- 
ledged as ministers of the gospel who have not Epis- 
copal ordination (he should say also, mission ;) and that 
those not united with *his Church are schismatics, and 
that their sacraments are invalid, (yes, and null.) Whe- 
ther this be a distinction without a difference, and which 
class of principles best accord with the Scripture, I leave 
to a candid and impartial public to decide." 

*' If this system (High-Churchism) were universally 
to prevail, the sun in his course is not more resistless 
than the doom of our republican institutions. Yet if 
these principles are true, and if they rest on the authority 
of Almighty God, they ought to prevail, even though 
their prevalence should dash our social system, and scat- 
ter it like the splinters of a wreck upon the heaving 
ocean." Sermon^ pjp. 21, 24. 

So then this brief contrast of low and high Church 
principles ends in smoke — in three ifs ; '* if this system 
were universally to prevail; z/ these principles are true f 
^^ if they rest on the authority of Almighty God, they 
ought to prevail ; which class of principles best accord 
with the Scripture, he leaves to a candid and impartial 
public to decide." The Calvinist teacher leaves the ques- 
tion as he found it, involves his congregation in religious 
difficulties, raises a dust before their eyes ; and then 
meekly tells the candid and impartial people to decide 
for themselves. There is consistency in this ; for he de- 
clared in the foregoing pages of his sermon, *'that all 
Ecclesiastical power is by the Low Church vested in the 
people, not in the Clergy. Thrice happy Calvinists I You 
have found a teacher to the desire of your hearts : 2 Tim. 
iv. 3 ; that centres all spiritual power in yourselves ; 
that allows your competency to choose and send pastors, 
and decide all religious disputes and difficulties ; that 
sews cushions under every elbow and places pillows 



\ 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 265 

under all persons and ages to catch souls. Wo to the 
false teachers that have deceived my people, saying, 
Peace, peace, and there is no peace, saith the Lord. Had 
Converse lived in the days of Christ, he would tell him 
that there was no need of sending the twelve to teach and 
baptize all nations ; no need of hearing the Church ; no 
need of sacraments, prayers, sacrifice, or priesthood ; 
that the people were self-sufficient to understand the 
Bible and solve the most obscure questions of faith and 
morals. In short, that there was no need of the Christian 
religion at all ; that heathenism was good enough for 
the Calvinists. 

Certainly, the Holy Fathers, Popes, Doctors, and Sa- 
cred Councils of antiquity unanimously declare that the 
religious rites and ceremonies of heretics and schismatics 
are carnal and empty affairs ; that they have neither a 
priesthood, sacraments, nor sacrifice that avails them to 
salvation ; that their benedictions are maledictions ; that 
as the monkeys, which are not men, imitate the actions of 
men, so do the heretics and schismatics who are not 
within the Church, usurp the rites and worship of the 
Church. Of the mighty host of authorities, for this posi- 
tion, now before me I insert but two : 

B, Augustine^ De FidcE ad Petrum^ cxxxvi. Believe 
thou most firmly, and doubt not at all, that perdition is 
augmented by baptism for persons baptized outside the 
Church, if they return not to the Church. So essential 
for salvation is the communion of the Ecclesiastical So- 
ciety, that a man is not saved by baptism, to whom it is 
not given, where it ought to be given.'' — Decretal Gratian, 
1. Quest. 1, ch. 55. 

B. Cyprian contra Hereticos. *' If any man, says he, se- 
cedes, through heretical presumption from the Church, he 
is self-condemned. With such a person we should not,. 



2 66 ABSURDITIES OP 

according to the Apostle, Tit. iii. 10, even take food." The 
same thing is declared in the book of Kings, 3 Kings, 
xiii. 9 : When the man of God is sent to Jeroboam to re- 
prove him for his sins, and to foretell the future vengeance, 
he is forbidden to eat bread or drink water with him ; but 
as he obeyed not, he was killed, on his return home, by a 
lion. And dares any man to say, that the baptism of sal- 
vation, and the heavenly food, can be in community with 
heretics, with whom neither the terrestrial food nor 
temporal drink can be taken ? It is evident, that neither 
the oil for anointing the persons to be baptized, could, by 
any means, be sanctified, nor the Eucharist consecrated 
among them, where the hope is null and the faith is false, 
where all things are carried on by deception. For the 
heretic, like the apes, which, though they are not men, yet 
imitate human actions, would usurp the authority and 
doctrine of the Catholic Church, whilst he is not even in 
the Church. The man that is accursed of God, blesses ; 
the man that is dead, promises life ; the blasphemer in- 
vokes God ; the profane man ministers priesthood ; the 
sacrilegious person lays an altar. To all these evils is 
added that other evil, that the deviFs prelate dares to effect 
the Eucharist, whereas an oblation cannot be sanctified 
there where the Holy Ghost is not ; and whereas the 
Lord listens not, on behalf of any person, to the prayers 
and supplications of him who has himself offended the 
Lord. 

^' If they who despise the Church are to be held as 
heathens, and publicans, with much stronger reason must 
rebels, and the enemies, and the makers of false altars, 
spurious priesthoods, and sacrilegious sacrifices, be com- 
puted among heathens and publicans ; for they are all, 
most certainly, fallen off from the charity and unity of the 
Church. Therefore all things that heretics do, are carnal, 
empty, and false ; so that no one of all their doings 



A CALVINISTIC MINISTER. 26t 

ought to be approved by us. Not what is attempted in 
the name of Christ, but what is eiFected in the truth of 
Christ, are at once to be received and adopted. How do 
they effect what they undertake, or obtain by their un- 
canonical action, they, who conspire, as much as lies in 
their power, against, God ? Consequently, they who, as 
leaders, authors, or abettors, patronize heretics and schis- 
matics, are by the divine law involved in their guilt and 
penalties, unless they separate themselves from the com- 
munion of the wicked ones ; whereas the Lord speaks 
and commands, through Moses, Num. xvi. 21 : Separate 
yourselves from the tents of these hardened people, and touch not 
anything that belongs to them^ lest you perish together in your 
sins. And what the Lord threatened through Moses, he 
fulfilled. So that every person that had not separated 
from Chore, Dathan, and Abiron, suffered immediate pun- 
ishment for the impious communion : as the Holy Ghost 
also, by the Prophet, Osee, ix. 4, says : Their sacrifices shall 
he like the bread of mourners ; all that shall eat it shall be de- 
filed. He thereby teaches and establishes, that all per- 
sons whatever that were defiled with the author^s sins 
are involved in their punishment. Quoted Ibid,, ch. 70. 



268 TEN HERESIES OF 

CHAPTER XIII. 

TEN HERESIES OF BROWNSON's QUARTERLY REVIEW. 

Mr. Brownson, they say, is a native of the State of 
Yermont. He was by birth and education a sectarian, 
and joined m rotation the manifold sects of New-England, 
acting" the preacher everywhere; but about the year 1843 
he embraced the Catholic religion, and soon after he com- 
menced a publication, which he styled a Quarterly Re- 
view, in which he constitutes himself a critic of all Ca- 
tholic works, come from whom they may. He produced 
at the onset some pithy and valuable articles, which 
gained for him the confidence and even the admiration of 
several innocent and unsuspecting Catholics. But those 
articles were soon interspersed with the most pernicious 
heresies ; which shows that his conversion was but a 
sham, that he might undermine, within the bosom of the 
Church and under the Catholic name, the whole Christian 
religion. Although partaking, in the beginning, of the 
general approbation of his writings, I soon discovered 
the poison, and consequently published, in the year 1852, 
at Burlington, Vermont, an octavo, entitled O'' Callahan 
on Brownson^ s Atheism^ &c. He has attempted no reply; 
but leaving his monstrous errors in black and white on 
the pages of his production for the delusion of posterity, 
he has the effrontery to continue the publication of his 
Quarterly from that time to this. Consequently, I also 
continue to sound the alarm. 

THE FIKST HERESY OF BRO^YNSON'S QUARTERLY 
REVIEW, January, 1851. 

Brownson^ s Review, page 16, saith : '* The distinction of 
persons in the Godhead is, if there be any truth at all in 



brownson's quarterly review. 269 

the orthodox dogma, an eternal distinction, and therefore it 
is perfectly idle to attempt to resolve it into certain imagin- 
ary, or even real distinctions, which originate in time, 
and have reference to God's manifestation of himself to 
man. A Trinity, if such there be, that results of necessity 
from God's revelation to man, is not eternal and self-exist- 
ent, and therefore is not God, nor is God it." 

The words, ^' If there be any truth at all in the ortho- 
dox dogma," ^' a Trinity, if such there be, that results from 
God's revelation to man," evidently show that he hath no 
faith in the blessed Trinity, and that he follows after the 
Arians, Photinians, and Manicheans of the early ages ; 
Luther and Calvin of the sixteenth century, and the Uni- 
tarians and XJniversalists of modern times. 

In God there is Unity of Essence, Trinity of Persons — of the 
Father J and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; and in that 
distinction of ^persons there is nothing greater, nothing smaller ; 
nothing sooner, nothing later. 

Gen. i. 26. God said : Let us make man to our im- 
age and likeness. 

Gen. iii. 22. And God said : Behold, Adam is become 
as one of us. 

Gen. xi. 7. God said : Come, let us go down, and there 
confound their tongue. 

Gen. xviii. 1. The Lord appeared to Abraham in the 
vale of Mambre, as he was sitting at the door of his tent, 
in the very heat of the day : and when he lifted up his 
eyes, there appeared to him three men standing near him ; 
and as soon as he saw them, he ran to meet them from 
the door of his tent, and adored them to the ground. 
And he said : Lord, if I have found favor in thy sight, &c. 



270 TEN HERESIES OP 

Gen. xix. 24. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and 
Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven. 

Psalm xxxii. 6. By the word of the Lord the heavens 
were established ; and all the power of them by the spirit 
of his mouth. 

Psalm Ixvi. 8. May God, our God, bless us ; may 
God bless us ; and may all the ends of the earth fear him. 

Isaiae, vi. 3. And they cried one to another, and said : 
Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is 
full of his g'lory. 

Osee, i. 1. The Lord saith : I will save them by the 
Lord their God. 

Zac. iii. 2. The Lord said to Satan : and the Lord 
that chose Jerusalem, rebuke thee. 

Matt. iii. 16. Mark, i. 10. Luke, iii. 22. And the hea- 
vens were opened to him : and he saw the Spirit of God 
descending as a dove, and coming upon him ; and behold 
a voice from heaven, saying : This is my beloved^ Son, in 
whom I am well pleased. 

Matt, xxviii. 19. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. 

Luke, i. 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. 
And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee, 
shall be called the Son of God. 

John, xiv. 16. And I will ask the Father and he shall 
give another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for 
ever, the Spirit of Truth. 26. But the Paraclete, the 
Holy Ghost whom the Father shall send in my name, he 
will teach you all things. 

John, XV. 26. When the Paraclete cometh, whom I 
will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who 
proceedeth from the Father. 



brownson's quarterly review. 271 

Clement Rom. Constitut. Apost. lib. 8, Cap. 15, A. D. 80. 
'* To thee be glory, praise, magnificence, veneration, 
adoration, and to thy Son, Christ our Lord both God and 
King, and to the Holy Ghost, now, and always, and for 
ever and ever. Amen." 

Ignatius, Epist. ad Philipp. A. D, 100. "The God of 
all things, the Father of Christ, is one, from whom are all 
things ; our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom were all things 
made, is one. The Spirit who operated and displayed his 
power in Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Apostles, is 
one. One God the Father, not two nor three. One sole 
and true God, who is, nor is there another besides him. 
God the Word is one, and the Paraclete is one. Certainly 
there are not three Fathers, nor three Sons, nor three 
Paracletes ; but one Father, and one Son, and one Holy 
Ghost. And wherefore the Lord, sending the Apostles to 
teach all nations, commanded them to baptize in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
not in one triple name nor in three uncreated, but in three 
persons of the same honor." 

Justineas in expositione orthodoxce Jidei. A. D, 150. ** We 
ought to confess one God, of whom we have a conception 
in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, 
knowing that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
are of one nature. For the unity is understood in the 
Trinity, and the Trinity is known in the unity. But how 
that is, I would neither inquire of others, nor would I 
attempt to utter with my earthly tongue and filthy flesh 
the nature of the hidden and ineffable mysteries." 

Irenceus, Lib. 1, Cap. 2, A. D. 180. "The Church, 
spread throughout the whole world to the very ends of 
the earth, received from the Apostles and their disciples 



272 TEN HERESIES OF 

that faith which is in one God, Father Almighty, who made 
heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, 
and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnated for 
our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost, who foretold by 
the Prophets the decrees of God. 

Lib, 4, Cap. 76. "According to this agreement and 
concurrence, was man made and moulded such to the 
image and likeness of the uncreated God ; the Father 
devising and commanding, the Son ministering and form- 
ing, the Holy Ghost feeding and rearing ; man growing 
and gradually advancing towards the perfect, that is, be- 
coming next to the uncreated, that is, God, who is perfect." 

Clement Alex,, Lib, 1, Fcedagogi, Cap. 6, A. D, 200. 
" Christ the Lord, the fruit of the Virgin, said not : 
blessed are a woman's breasts, nor did he select them for 
his suck ; but the amiable and benign Father rained 
down the Word ; he is now made spiritual food for the 
good and holy people. O mystical miracle ! The Father 
of the universe is Indeed one, the Word of the universe 
is also one, the Holy Ghost is one, and ubiquitous. 

Lib, 3, Pcedagogi, Cap. 12. " Let us praise the one 
Father and the Son. The Son, I say, our pedagogue and 
master, together with the Holy Ghost, who is one in all 
things, in whom are all things, and by whom are all 
things ; one by whom he is what he always was, whose 
members all are, whose glory they are, who is totally 
good, totally wise, totally just." 

Con. Niccen, in Symbolo, A. D. 325. " I believe in one 
God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, 
of all things visible and invisible. — And in one Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the 
Father before all ages. And in the Holy Ghost, Lord 
and life-giver, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, 



brownson's quarterly review. 273 

who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and 
glorified." 

Enseb. Ccesarien Ejpistola de fide Nicana^ A. D. 330. 
'* We believe in one God the Father Almighty, creator of 
all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Word of God, God of God, light of light. We 
believe also in one Holy Ghost. And we believe that each 
of them is and exists ; the Father truly a Father, the Son 
truly a Son, and the Holy Ghost truly a Holy Ghost ; as 
our Lord, sending the Apostles, said : Going, teach ye all 
nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

AthanasiuSj J.. J>. 350 ; on the saying : All things were 
delivered to me by the Father. ^^ The Trinity, in every re- 
spect laudable, and venerable, and adorable, is one and 
indivisible, and inexpressible by figure, but these sancti- 
fications are united for that inseparable unity. For as 
the illustrious creatures thrice uttered the glorification, 
saying, Apoc. iv. 8, Holy^ holy, holy, they showed by the 
threefold expression that there are three absolute and 
perfect persons, and by the one expression. Lord, they de- 
clared the one substance. 

Hieronym. ad Cap. iv., ad Ephes., A, D. 390. '* The Lord 
is one, and God is one ; because the expression, of the 
Father and of the Son, is one divinity. The Faith is also 
called one, because we believe alike in the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and in one baptism : for we 
are baptized after the same manner, in the Father, and in 
the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, we are thrice immerged, 
to denote the mystery of the Trinity ; and are baptized 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost ; but in one name, which is understood God. 



2T4 TEN HERESIES OF 

JSpist. Ivii., ad Damaswn. " We ask what they mean 
by three hypostases. They answer : three subsisting 
persons. We reply that we believe the same thing. The 
sense is not enough for them ; they insist on the very 
name, as if there be some hidden poison in the syllable. 
We exclaim : if any person confess not three hypostases, 
that is, three subsisting persons, let him be anathema. 
But because we have not uttered their favorite names, we 
are called heretics. But if any man, understanding by 
hypostasis nature, predicates not one hypostasis in the 
three persons, he is an alien from Christ ; and for this con- 
fession we are branded with the burning iron of communi- 
cating with you. I pray, decide, if you please ; I shall 
not be afraid to express three hypostases if you decree it. 
Let a new creed be made subsequent to the Council of 
Nice : let us, orthodox, confess in the same words with 
the Arians. The whole school of secular literature knows 
nothing else by hypostasis but nature or substance. And 
who will, I ask, predicate with a sacrilegious mouth three 
substances ? There is one and only nature of God which 
truly is : for that which subsists he has not from else- 
where, but it is his own.^' 

I have, besides, at hand a vast number of sacred 
authorities, which I reluctantly omit for want of space. 
Whosoever would be desirous to see them, will, I hope, 
consult my book on Brownson^s Atheism^ Mysteries^ ^c.,page 
92, and onward, Burlington, Vermont, 1852. 

SECOND HERESY. 

Brownson^s Review, 'page It, saith : ''The simple fact 
that men have entertained the belief that God is in three 
distinct persons in one substance, of which the first hint 
is not in nature, is conclusive proof that it has been re- 
vealed ; for that which in no sense exists, cannot be an 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 275 

object of thought, and de non apjparentihus et non existentihus 
eadem est ration 

Whereas he builds not his faith in the Unity and Trin- 
ity of God upon the Prophets, Apostles, the Nicene and 
Athanasian Creeds — upon the Church, which is the pillar 
and ground of truth, but upon the thoughts of men ; and 
as no two men, apart from the authority of the Church, 
think the same way, he shifts with every breeze, and goes 
with every wind of doctrine. He would be a Turk in 
Constantinople, heathen in Carthage, deist in Berlin, or 
a Lutheran in London. Passing from one absurdity to 
another, he falls into Socinianism, saying, '' Things that 
appear not and things that exist not are the same ;" that 
is to say, things which he understands not, are as if they 
have no existence, that is to say, what he understands not 
by the light of reason he rejects. When I shall give, from 
BdVs Dictionary of JReligions^ a sketch of the Socinians and 
their tenets, I shall return to Brownson. 

The Socinians derive their name from Fawstus Socinus, 
a scion of Protestancy, w^io undertook to reform the 
reformed ; he published a book at Basil which teemed 
with the old exploded heresies of Somasota, Photinus, 
and so forth. He passed into Poland, and thence into 
Transylvania, where he met vast numbers of Anti- 
trinitarians divided into about fifty sects, which went 
under the general name. Unitarians. They had in Ra- 
covia a large college, which was suppressed in punish- 
ment of the riots of the students, who pulled down the 
crosses in the country and profaned the churches. Faustus 
Socinus lived many years in Cracow and died in 1604. 
The Arians and Socinians were banished for their rebel- 
lious propensities, in 1658, from Transylvania. Great 
numbers of them retired to Holland, but were not per- 
mitted there to exercise their public worship. As to their 



276 TEN HERESIES OF 

tenets, they imagined that nothing should be allowed in 
faith which their reason would not fully comprehend, and 
that the Scriptural doctrines should not contain anything 
above reason, and, of course, they rejected all the 
mysteries. 

Brownson is, there is no doubt, a follower of that 
wretched sect. Poor man ! Can he discover from the 
first or second hint of nature, or from the light of reason, 
how God created in six days the world out of nothing, 
and makes all its parts observe for ever and ever the 
same order which he had given them ? This is to him a 
mystery. Can he from the light of reason comprehend 
the Unity or Trinity of God : or say how God is every- 
where, knows all things, even our hidden thoughts, and 
that he abides especially in the souls of the just ? This 
is to him a mystery. Can he comprehend from the light of 
reason how the sin of Adam is propagated through all men; 
or how man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost? 
This is to him a mystery ; he cannot comprehend it. Can 
he say from the light of reason how the Lord multiplied 
loaves and fishes in the desert, or changed water into wine 
at the blessed marriage; or how he transubstantiates bread 
and wine, in the holy sacrifice, into his body and blood, 
soul and divinity ? It is to him a mystery. Can he tell from 
any hint of nature how his eyes see, his ears hear, whilst 
no other organ of his body sees or hears ? It is to him a 
mystery. Can he from the light of reason say in what 
part of his body his soul resides, whether in the heart or 
brains, or in all parts of the body, in the same manner 
that God is everywhere ; or can he say how his soul hath 
such an absolute control over the body, that every finger 
and toe, joint and nerve, instantly move at its will ? It 
is to him a mystery. Can he say from the light of reason 
how the sun is suspended without a lever or fulcrum 
under the blue canopy of heaven, affording light and life 
unto all ? 



brownson's quarterly review. 211 



THIRD HERESY, OR ATHEI8M. 

Brownson's Review, page 18, saith, "He does not mean 
that the three persons are evolved, or manifested, because 
God is three eternally subsisting persons in one substance ; 
but the three persons result from the revelation itself, or 
that God, in order to reveal himself efficiently and suffi- 
ciently to us, must assume three persons, or personate a 
Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. These persons, or per- 
sonalities, are the dramatis personnce of revelation. The 
author holds that God cannot reveal to us in language 
anything of which we have not direct and immediate in- 
tuition, and that he can reveal himself only in so far as 
he exhibits himself to our intuitive apprehension. In 
order to do this, he must make use of such methods of 
self-exhibition as are adapted to the nature of our under- 
standing. These methods are the personations, as in a 
drama, of the characters of a father, a son, and a holy 
spirit, and through these impersonations, by virtue of 
what we already know of the characters personated, as 
existing in the intelligible order, he extends our know^- 
ledge of himself." 

The passage just quoted from Brownson^s Review leaves 
him an Arian and Unitarian: he says that God is not three 
eternal persons in one substance ; but that God had, in 
order to make himself understood by us, to use characters 
that are familiar to us — that of a father, and a son, and 
a holy spirit ; that his author (one Bushnell) holds that 
God cannot reveal himself to us but in a language which 
we could comprehend, and that therefore he had to use a 
method of self-exhibition with which we are acquainted. 
This method is the personation, as in a drama, of the char- 
acters of a father, a son, and holy spirit ; they are tlic 

13 



2T8 TEN HERESIES OF 

persons of the drama. The horrid blasphemer therefore 
asserts that the Blessed Trinity are but theatrical char- 
acters, invented by the Supreme Being to elucidate his 
revelation; that they had not, therefore, existence prior to 
that revelation. Why^did he not shudder for going so 
far as to represent the Godhead performing a drama in 
the fictitious persons of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost ? He has, without a doubt, borrowed 
the idea from the old heathens, who exhibited their deities 
in theatrical characters, fighting at Mount Ida for a gold- 
en apple, and committing all sorts of terrific crimes un- 
der fabulous characters, which they called the persons of 
the drama. Such burlesque exposure of their heathen 
deities soon produced its natural fruits : it brought them 
to despise all their gods, and sunk them in the lowest 
abyss of iniquity and silly idolatry; so that their wick- 
edness ascended to the ears of the Most High, and that 
the savage people and their filthy worship was swept from 
the face of the earth. Brownson in the next page makes 
his blasphemy still clearer. 

Brownson^ s Review ^ 'page 19, saith : ''The Trinity of 
persons said to be evolved in the process of revelation, is 
not the absolute God, not God as he exists in eternity, 
conceived as existing in himself prior to all creation, in 
time or outward expression, but the revealed or mani- 
fested God." 

Whereas, that sentence is tantamount to this : The 
Trinity of persons revealed in the Christian religion is 
not the absolute God, existing in eternity, self-existing 
prior to all creation, but the trinity of persons is the 
revealed or manifested God. Therefore he has two Gods : 
the one absolute, existing in eternity prior to all creation, 
the other existing only since the creation. He cannot, 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 279 

after this, set up any pretension to the Christian religion : 
he is but a viper gnawing the very vitals of the Church, 
seated within her bosom, under the name of Catholic. 
If faith and morals continue to decay at the rate at which 
they have withered since the rise of Brownson^s Review, 
fourteen years ago, what will those States come to ? The 
blackest crimes, murders, suicides. Free Lovers, and so 
forth, have alarmingly increased within these few years, 
so that society would seem to be near its dissolution. 
Whether this terrific state of things has been hastened 
by Brownson^s Review alone, or whether the influx of pro- 
fane lectures, or the ocean of fables, stories, and ro- 
mances lately come upon us, have any part in creating 
the public evil, let others say. But this I say, that the 
guardians of morals, the pastors of the people, should 
quickly bestir themselves, and raise up a wall for the 
house of Israel. 

Brethren, if you succumb to Brownson's blasphemy, 
the religion revealed by Christ, taught by the Apostles, 
washed with the blood of the Martyrs, and preserved by 
your pious Fathers, will be soon a gone-by thing, nowhere 
to be found. The Trinity, the Incarnation, Death, Resur- 
rection, Ascension, and miracles of Christ Jesus, the Vir- 
ginity of the Mother of God, are being turned into ridi- 
cule by the demons. 

Were the Apostles, who went to teach and baptize all 
nations; the Martyrs, who washed their robes in the blood 
of the Lamb; the Confessors, who denied not Christ be 
fore men; the Virgins, who carried their shining lamps to 
meet the Bridegroom and bride at the wedding-feast, act- 
uated by blind zeal, or divine grace ? Were the Basils, 
Cyrills, Chrysostoms, Epiphanius, Cyprians, Augustins, 
Gregories, Leo, Irenaeus, Ambrose, Jerome, Hilary, Ber- 
nard, who defended and illustrated the doctrine of Christ, 
fools, or knaves, or deceivers of the world ? Were the 



280 TEN HERESIES OP 

mighty kings and emperors, Constantine, Theodosius, 
Pepin, Charlemagne, St. Louis, Alfred, William the Con- 
fessor, who submitted to the yoke of Christ, and paid re- 
verential obedience to his Vicar upon earth, under a de- 
lusion ? 

Broicnson^s Revieic, page^ 19. '' The Trinity of persons 
said to be evolved in the process of revelation is not the ab- 
solute God, not God as he exists in eternity, conceived as 
existing in himself prior to all creation, in time or out- 
ward expression, but the revealed or manifested God." 

Whereas, that sentence is tantamount to this : The 
Trinity of persons revealed in the Christian religion, is 
not the absolute God, existing in eternity, self-existing 
prior to all creation, but the trinity of persons is the re- 
vealed or manifested God. Therefore he has two Gods ; 
the one absolute, existing in eternity prior to all creation 
the other existing only since the creation and revelation; 
the one greater, the other minor ; the one eternal, the 
other temporal ; the one self-existent, the other invented 
in the process of revelation. Therefore, Bushnell and his 
disciple, Brownson, hold that the Omnipotent God had 
performed a drama, using the characters, father, son and 
holy spirit ; and therefore, that the Trinity of the Christ- 
ians is but a theatrical fiction. Hence, the infernal blas- 
phemers turn into derision not alone the adorable Trinity, 
but also the Unity of God ; whom the demons represent 
as a stage-player, deluding mankind by the dramatic 
and fictitious persons, that of a father, and son, and a 
holy spirit. Since they deny that the Father, and the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost are the one eternal, self-existent 
and Supreme Being, what do they make of the Trinity of 
persons, who, as they blasphemously assert, had no ex- 
istence previous to the revelation ? What name do they 
give them ? The fellows that hold such diabolical notions. 



brownson's quarterly review. 281 

can have no pretensions to Christianity; they are both 
rank atheists. 

The holy Apostle, Ephes. ii., saith : Therefore you are 
no more strangers and foreigners ; but you are fellow- 
citizens with the saints and domestics of God, built upon 
the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ 
himself being the chief corner-stone, in whom all the 
building groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord, in 
whom you also are built together into an habitation of 
God in the Spirit. Be mindful that you, being heretofore 
Gentiles in the flesh ; that you were at that time without 
Christ, being aliens from the conversation of Israel, and 
strangers to the testament, having no hope of the promise 
and without God in this world ; but now in Christ Jesus, 
you who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the 
blood of Christ. But the two atheists would throw us 
back again to the gentiles, leave us aliens and foreigners 
to the conversation of the Church, without hope of the 
promise, without Christ, without God in this world. As 
the wretched pair reduce into nonentity, into a theatrical 
fictitious person, Christ Jesus, the chief corner-stone, the 
founder and finisher of the Christian religion, can they 
have the impudence to call themselves Christians ? can 
the sectarian minister, Bushnell, have the hypocrisy to 
preach for any denomination calling themselves Christ- 
ians ? His hypocrisy and imposture are suitable to their 
ignorance and stupidity. If there be any truth in the 
holy prophet, Osee, iv. 9, And there shall he^ like people^ like 
priest, the Presbyterian congregation are, like their preach- 
er, blind atheists. 

But thou, O man of God, fly these things ; and pursue 
godliness, faith, charity, patience, mildness. Fight the 
good fight of faith : lay hold on eternal life, whereunto 
thou art called, and hast confessed the true faith before 
its enemies. I charge thee before God, who knoweth all 



282 TEN HERESIES OF 

things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony 
under Pontius Pilate, that thou keep the commandment 
without spot, blameless, unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who is the Blessed and only Mighty, the 
King of kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath immor- 
tality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible ; whom no man 
hath seen nor can see ; to whom be honor and empire 
everlasting, Amen. 1 Tim. vi. But beware lest any man 
cheat you by philosophy and vain deceit, according to 
the tradition of men, according to the elements of the 
world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead corporally ; who is the 
head of all principality and power. Coloss. ii. 8. 

Indeed, the mad philosophy and vain deceit of the 
windy atheists would bewilder men ; level, not raise up, 
the fences ; demolish, not establish, the truth. But we 
speak, 1 Cor. ii. 7, the wisdom of God is a mystery, a 
wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the 
world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this 
world had known ; for if they had known it, they would 
never have crucified the Lord of glory. True, Christ Jesus 
is a mystery, a wisdom, which God hath ordained before the 
world ; which was with God from the beginning ; which 
was God ; which is hidden from the atheists ; but which 
God hath revealed to us by his Spirit. Will they, like 
the hardened Jews, seek to murder him because he not 
only broke the Sabbath, but said also that God was his 
father ? Had he denied that he was God, or that God 
was his father, they would never have crucified him. 
John, V. 18. 

Again, John, i. : In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All 
things were made by him ; and without him was made 
nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was 
the light of men ; and the light shineth in darkness and 



brownson's quarterly review. 283 

the darkness did not comprehend it. He was in the 
world, and the world was made by him, and the world 
knew him not. He came into his own (property) and his 
own (people) received him not — In propria venit et sui eum 
not receperunL This solitary passage from the holy Evan- 
gelist, John, shatters all heresies, blows into air the 
theatrical burlesque of both atheists. As Christ was in 
the beginning with God, before all ages, and as he was 
God, their wild notion that he came into existence with 
revelation, that he was but a theatrical person invented 
by the eternal and absolute God to reveal himself to man- 
kind, is proved to be satanic blasphemy. As all things 
were made by Christ, as the world was made by him, they 
are guilty of blasphemy and impiety in calling him a 
creature, only co-existent with revelation. Although he 
was the life and light of men, the true light, which en- 
lighteneth every man coming into this world, which was 
made by him, the light which shineth in darkness, in 
sinners and unbelievers, the darkness does not compre- 
hend him. He is to them a foolishness ; they turn him into 
derision. 

And again, Phil, ii, : Christ, being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied 
himself, taking the form of a man, being made in the like- 
ness of ma,n, and in habit found as a man. He humbled 
himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death 
of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted 
him, and given him a name which is above all names ; 
that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those 
that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth ; and 
that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus 
Christ is in the glory of God the Father. Observe that 
whilst Christ Jesus was, without robbery or usurpation, in 
the form of God, and equal with God, he was made by his 
Father heir of all things, and creator of the world, the 



284 TEN HERESIES OF 

brightness of his Fathers glory, the figure of his sub- 
stance, upholding all things by the word of his power, he 
humbled himself even unto the death of the cross, for our 
sake. Recollect that every knee, that is, every rational 
being in the world since the creation, men and angels, and 
even the spirits in the dreary regions below, must bow 
the knee in the name of Jesus, and confess that he is in 
the glory of God the Father : that of his kingdom there 
shall be no end. Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever. 
Thou in the beginning, Lord, didst found the earth ; 
and the works of thy hands are the heavens ; they shall 
perish, but thou shalt continue ; they shall be changed, 
but thou art the self-same, and thy years shall not fail. 
Heb. i. 

The holy prophet, Isa. vi. 2, saw the Lord sitting upon 
a throne, high and elevated, and his train filled the tem- 
ple ; upon it stood the seraphim ; the one had six wings, 
and the other had six wings ; with two they covered his 
face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two 
they flew. The things that were made during the six 
days, are made known to us by revelation ; but what the 
state of things had been previous to the creation, is con- 
cealed from us, and also what will be the condition of 
things after the world v/ill come to an end, is kept secret 
from us; whilst we fly aloft on the wings of Faith and 
Hope, towards that ineffable ocean of felicity, which neither 
eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard. Besides, the Lord himself, 
John, V. 19, when the Jews sought to kill him, because 
he did, not only break the Sabbath, but also said, that God 
was his father, making himself equal with God, answered 
and said to them : 7'he Son cannot do anything of himself ^ 
hit what he seeth the Father doing. Which he again makes 
clearer, John, x. 38 : The Father is in me and I in the 
Father. I and the Father are one. 



brownson's quarterly review. 285 

Brownson^s Review, page 6, saith : "What they teach is, 
that there is one God and one only God ; but that in this 
one God there is the distinction ad intra, not ad extra, of 
three real persons, and that these three real persons sub- 
sist without prejudice to the strict and absolute unity and 
simplicity of the divine being. Distinctions ad extra un- 
doubtedly destroy the absolute unity of the subject of 
which they are predicated ; but distinctions ad intra do 
not ; for we distinguish in thq cube, for instance, length, 
breadth, and depth, and yet without prejudice to its unity. 
We bring not this to illustrate the distinction of persons 
in God, but to show that distinctions ad intra are not in- 
compatible with the unity of substance." 

After having heretofore asserted : The Trinity of per- 
sons is not the absolute and self-existing God, previous 
to all creation, but the revealed or manifest God, he con- 
tinues in the above sentence the same strain, but so ab- 
surdly as to be almost incomprehensible ; he leaves, how- 
ever, no reason to doubt of his Unitarian tendency. 
'' What we teach," says he, ''is, that there is a distinction 
ad intra, and not ad extra, of three real persons subsist- 
ing without prejudice to the strict and absolute unity of 
the Divine Being." He seems to imagine that the three 
persons are difierent and separable from the Divine Being, 
and therefore that they are not God. Thus he proves 
himself again to be a Unitarian and an Arian heretic. It 
is needless to repeat here my proofs of the Unity and 
Trinity of God : that in God there are three persons, the 
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; that the Fa- 
ther is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God ; 
yet they are not three but one God. — See above, page 269. 

What heretical insanity he displays in the above pas- 
sage 1 By what cubical or chemical mensuration has he 
explored the ad intra, or ad extra, the essence or substance, 

13* 



28C TEN HERESIES OF 

the length, breadth, and depth of the Deity ? He may, per- 
haps, attempt to analyse the internal and external prop- 
erties, the nature and elements of plants and flowers, of 
fire and water; but he is bewildered in attempting to make 
ad intray or ad extra, internal or external distinctions in 
the divine essence. For our Lord Christ Jesus, the 
blessed and the mighty, the King of kings and Lord of 
lords, inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath 
seen, nor can see. 1 Tim. vi. 16. Thou canst not see my 
face: for no man can see me and live. Exod. xxxiii. 20. 
Since God is a pure, simple spirit, who cannot be seen by 
mortal man, and since he inhabiteth light that is totally 
inaccessible to us, it seems to be rashness, or rather mad- 
ness, to investigate his essential or accidental properties 
by profane philosophy. Before he soars aloft to the high 
heavens to scan the essence and substance of the invisi- 
ble, incomprehensible, omnipotent Being, let him look into 
himself and develope the innate properties of his soul, 
and say how two substances of different and opposite 
elements, the one spiritual and the other material, the 
soul and the flesh, coalesce and harmonize. The soul, en- 
nobled with the divine attributes — will, memory, and under- 
standing, — and seated, like an emperor on his lofty throne, 
in some part of the body, issues her counsels and man- 
dates, which are promptly obeyed without the least mur- 
mur by all the members, the hands, feet, and tongue. 
Does he know how his body was organized, with all its 
parts and joints, bones, blood, neck, skull, brains, and 
arteries, and furnished with a rational soul, in his mother's 
womb ? In regard to this mystery, hear a saintly mother 
accosting her sons, who are going to be martyred for the 
cause of God. 2 Mac. vii. 22 : I know not how you were 
formed in my womb ; for I neither gave you breath, nor 
soul, nor life, nor did I frame your limbs ; but the Crea- 
tor of the world, that formed the jiativity of man, and dis- 



brownson's quarterly review. 287 

covered the origin of all things, will again restore to you, 
in his mercy, both breath and life, since you despise your- 
self for the sake of his law. Now, tired and abashed in 
the consideration of his inward man, let him say how the 
Divine Wisdom established the mountains with their bulk, 
or brought forth the hills, or prepared the heavens, the 
rivers, and the poles of the world, and how with a certain 
law and compass he enclosed the depths, how he enclosed 
the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters 
that they should not pass their limits, and how he hath 
balanced the foundations of the earth. Let him then say 
how the Son was born of the Father before all ages with- 
out a mother, or how he was made man of the flesh and 
blood of the Virgin without a father. Having contem- 
plated the wonderful goodness and wisdom of God in the 
formation, endowment, and redemption of man, in the Cre- 
adon and arrangement of all things, visible and invisi- 
ble, in heaven and earth, will he not exclaim, with the 
holy Psalmist, Ps. cxxxviii. 6 : Thy knowledge, God, 
is become wonderful to me : it is high ; I cannot reach 
it. And since I am not able to comprehend, myself, the 
ad intra and ad extra, the internal and external structure 
of my own soul and body, how could I comprehend the in- 
comprehensible substance or essence of thee, my God ? 

FOURTH HERESY 

BrowTison^s Review^ page 8, saith: " In God himself there 
is no real distinction, as we have often occasion to repeat, 
between his attributes and his essence. He is not, like 
creatures, composed of matter and form, substance and 
quality, essence and attributes : for he is a most pure 
and simple act." Page 11: *'God is a most simple and 
pure act." 

Whereas he has had often occasion to repeat that there 



288 TEN HERESIES OF 

is no real distinction between the essence and attributes of 
God, that God is a most pure and single act ; the express- 
ion is no slip of the pen, not a fleeting* phantom, but his 
deep and settled conviction. But see the impiety and ab- 
surdity of the notion. To eat, to drink, to sleep, are acts 
of man ; yet no one of said acts could be said to be man 
himself; or that he and his acts are identical. The 
human acts, like the cloud, pass by ; when they are con- 
summated there is no more of them ; but he abides and re- 
mains in the same essence and substance. It is written, 
1 Cor. xii. : There are diversities of operations, but the 
same God who worketh all in all. To one indeed by the 
Spirit is given the word of wisdom ; to another, the word 
of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another, 
faith in the same Spirit ; to another, the grace of healing 
in one Spirit; to , another, the working of miracles; to 
another, prophesy; to another, the discerning of spirits; 
to another, diverse kinds of tongues; to another, the in- 
terpretation of speeches. But all these things one and 
the same Spirit worketh. These diverse operations or 
acts, which are worked by one and the same Spirit of God, 
could not be called God, or that the Spirit of God, and his 
operations or acts, are one and the same. 

Again ; the creation of the world, the destruction by 
the Deluge, the Captivity in Babylon, the Nativity, Re- 
surrection, and Ascension of Christ, are acts of the Spirit 
of God ; however, nobody would say that any of these di- 
vine acts are God, or that God and his attributes are the 
same. The Reviewer, who holds that God is a pure and 
simple act, that God and his acts are the same, will have 
to multiply his Gods in proportion to the multiplicity of 
the divine acts, and become a polytheist. Heb. i. : Thou 
in the beginning, Lord, didst found the earth ; and the 
works of thy hands are the heavens : they shall perish, 
but thou shalt continue ; and they shall all grow old as a 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 289 

garment, and as a vesture shalt thou change them, and 
they shall be changed ; but thou art the selfsame, and 
thy years shall not fail. The earth and the heavens, which 
are the works and acts of God, grow old, change, and de- 
cay. God himself would, also, if he and his acts and 
attributes were identical, grow old, change, and cease to 
exist. Then would Bushnell and Brownson and their dis- 
ciples be without God, and, of course, free from any fear 
of future judgment : assuming the liberty of the flesh, the 
godless people can give full scope to their sensual 
appetites. 

It is said that an ancient heathen, one Orpheus, and 
his followers, in their madness, imagined that God was 
born of the air, and that he is, therefore, fleeting and 
evanescent. Brownson has, without a doubt, borrowed 
from him his wild notions of the Deity. Further, act is a 
theatrical term, that denotes *' the part of a play, during 
which the performance proceeds without interrruption." 
By keeping in view how Bushnell and Brownson, as 
seen in the foregoing pages, represented in derision the 
Deity performing a drama by the fictitious persons of a 
father, and a son, and a holy spirit, it may be presumed 
that they use in the theatrical sense, the word act on the 
present occasion also. 

The old heathens, too, deified their brutal actions and 
appetites ; had a Venus, a Mars, a Bacchus, to preside 
over lust, war, and gluttony, to screen these infernal pas- 
sions, and palm them upon the community. How has it 
happened, that the man had the boldness to spawn his 
nefarious blasphemy in the nursery of the Puritans ? Is 
it because they never received the divine seed, or that it 
had been subsequently smothered by the briars and thistles 
in the hot-bed of mammon ? Or because near the end of the 
world iniquity hath abounded, and the charity of many 
hath grown cold, and anti-christ hath gained the sway ? 



290 TEN HERESIES OF 

There shall be no respect had to the idols of the Gentiles, 
because the creatures of God are turned into abomination, 
and God himself into ridicule, and a temptation to the 
souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise; for 
the beginning of infidelity is the devising of idols, and the 
invention of them is the corruption of life ; for neither were 
they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever : 
for by the vanity of men they came into the world ; and 
therefore they shall shortly come to an end. Wisd. xiv. 
11. We rely, therefore, on the promise of Christ Jesus, 
and on the prophesy of the Holy Ghost, just now given, 
that God will not forsake or abandon his Church, and that 
Bushnell and Brownson's ridicule of God himself, and 
their idolatrous inventions, will shortly come to an end ; 
that their blasphemous productions will not be tolerated 
among our Catholics. 

Brownson^s Review, page 13, saith : " The Christian 
order, as a distinct and substantial order, is conceivable 
only as transcending or lying above the order of nature, 
therefore only as superintelligible ; for the order of na- 
ture and the intelligible order are one and the same.'' 

These big and pompous words, uttered in his wonted 
air of wisdom and gravity, are but wind and empty sound, 
calculated to draw the young and light reader of fables, 
romances, and periodicals into skepticism and atheism. 
Forsooth, the Christian order, as a distinct and substan- 
tial order, transcends and lies above the order of nature. 
As the goodly Reviewer affords no rule or data to under- 
stand what things or substances are the Christian order, 
and the order of nature, or in what respect they differ, or 
how many degrees the one order transcends or lies above 
the other, he only entangles the light reader in fog and 
darkness, without a ray or guide to recover himself. In- 



brownson's quarterly review. 291 

deed, it seems to be his purpose that the reader shall not 
extricate himself; for he tells him that the Christian order 
lies somewhere above the order of nature, and that it is 
superintelligible, that is, beyond our comprehension. What 
worldling", then, in our days, bent upon the gratification 
of his brutal passions, and studious of the things that are, 
would care for the promised joys above, or go through 
the unknown regions of the natural order in quest of the 
superintelligible Christian order ? If he imagine that the 
Christian order, or religion, is unintelligible and incom- 
prehensible, it must be his impression that the ignorant 
person who never troubled himself about the Christian 
doctrine, has as good a chance as the just man whose will 
is in the law of the Lord, and who on his law meditates 
day and night ; that the four-footed beasts and the creep- 
ing things of the earth, the seekers of mammon who keep 
the head for ever downwards, do full as^well as the fowls 
of the air, who despise the vanities of this world, keep 
the head erect, and ascend on the wings of faith to Mount 
Sion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem, and the company of many thousands of angels, and 
the church of the first-born who are written in heaven, 
and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the 
just made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the New 
Testament. 

If he imagine that the Christian order lies in some un- 
defined space above the order of nature, that it is unintel- 
ligible, that there is no possibility of coming at it, he must 
come to the horrid conclusion that the Divine Founder of 
the Christian religion is guilty of injustice and tyran- 
ny, in commanding us, under pain of eternal punishment, 
to know and observe his law and will ; that the holy 
Prophets and Apostles who promulgated the Christian re- 
ligion; the martyrs who watered it with their blood; the 
Fathers, Popes, and Councils who defined and defended 



292 TEN HERESIES OP 

it; the spotless virgins who adorned and dignified it; nay, 
all the Christians throughout the world who glory in the 
Christian name, who cherish as they do the apple of their 
eye, the doctrine of Christ crucified, labor in vain; that 
no man whatever, in ancient or modern times, came to a 
right understanding of the Christian and natural orders, 
until Brownson received the genuine ray of divine light. 
But he tells not whether the spirit that enlightened him 
was black or white. Had he belched out some time ago 
among the Protestants, who are mainly carried by wind 
and steam, his windy and empty strains of infidelity, he 
would be called ^' a smart man;'^ *' a pretty clever fellow;" 
*' a profound reasoner.'^ It is lamentable that he did not 
remain with them, or that he came to spread among us 
his foul and filthy atheism. The wolf, whilst he remains 
outside the fold in his hideous pelt, is not half so dan- 
gerous as when he enters in and assumes the garb of the 
sheep. You may, with God's grace, escape the missiles 
of the open enemy, whilst your chance is but poor from 
the darts of the masked foe. 

FIFTH HEEESY. 

Brownson^ s Review^ page 23, saith : ^'Whatever is infi- 
nite is God, and God is nothing between God and man.'' 

Such a lofty flight on the wings of chimera may be 
expected from a scion of the sectarian school which has 
drifted from the rock, which is carried about with every 
wind, and which leaves the interpretation of Holy Writ 
to each man's private judgment. St. Justin 11. and 
Theophilus relate, that one Orpheus, an ancient heathen, 
held that the air is God, because the air is infinite, and 
that there are three hundred and fifty gods ; which 
notion however, he abandoned at the approach, of death, 



brownson's quarterly review. 293 

and confessed that there is but one God. It must needs 
be that Brownson has somewhere met with Orpheus' writ- 
ings, and sucked from them the notion, '' that whatever 
is infinite is God." 

Who hath numbered the sands of the sea, and the 
drops of the rain, and the days of the world ? Who hath 
measured the height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, 
and the depth of the abyss ? Who hath searched out the 
wisdom of God that goeth before all things ? Wisdom 
hath been created before all things, and the understanding 
of prudence from everlasting. Eccl. i. 2. Who hath meas- 
ured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed 
the heavens with his palm ? Who hath poised with three 
fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains 
in scales, and the hills in a balance ? Isa. xl. 12. Where- 
as, Brownson is not able to number the sand on the beach, 
the drops of the rain, the days of the world, the stars 
aloft, the breadth of the earth, or the depth of the abyss: 
he must look upon them all as infinite and incomprehen- 
sible, and therefore, as Gods. But what is his theory, but 
a revival of the pagan idolatry ? 

St, Augustin saith : ** Moreover, see the gross ignor- 
ance of man, if he pay divine honor to the senseless, life- 
less tree, and neglect to worship the living God ; he 
should not think that any creature, but the Creator is to 
be adored ; for God alone hath created and disposed all 
things. The heavens are high, the earth wide, and the 
sea immense, but the Creator of them must be more 
charming and immense. If the things which we behold 
be so incomprehensible — for instance, the variety of the 
fruits, the splendor of the flowers, the diversity of the 
animals on earth and in the sea, the sagacity of the bees, 
the freshness of the breezes and of the dew, the roaring 
of the thunder, the coruscations of the lightning, the 



294 TEN HERESIES OF 

vicissitudes of the seasons, the successions of the days and 
nights, — if all these things which we behold on earth be 
to us incomprehensible, what conception can we form 
of the celestial things and beings which we do not yet 
see; and how omnipotent is the Artist whose word alone 
created them all ! Fear him, brethren, above all things, 
rely upon his mercy, never despair of his clemency." 

What does he mean when he says : ** God is nothing 
between God and man ?" Reader, do you comprehend 
him ? He certainly seems to be seized as if with a deli- 
rium (not the delirium tremens, I hope,) when he attempts 
to treat of the Invisible, Incomprehensible, and Omnipo- 
tent Deity. The subject is too high for a heretic : he 
should not touch it. 

SIXTH HERESY, 

Brownson^s Review^ page 24, saith : ^'God in, or under 
finite forms is not God, but creature, if anything. Thus, 
in our Lord, that which is limited, finite, or conditioned, 
is not God, but mafl; and Christ is God, because his per- 
son which has assumed human nature, is divine, not limit- 
ed, not subjected to the human form. The person of 
Christ is not in, nor under a human form: for if it were, 
it would not be a divine person, but a human person, since 
whatever is in the form of man is man." 

By the words: " God in, or under a finite form is not 
God," he denies the Divinity of Christ Jesus: and by the 
words: ** God is but a creature, if anything," he denies 
or doubts his Humanity. But that Christ Jesus is both 
God and man can be easily proved. 

John, i. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 295 

was in the beginning with God. All things were made 
by him : and without him was made nothing that was 
made. 

Who can, after this testimony of the Evangelist, ques- 
tion the divinity of Christ our Lord ? Moreover, the apos- 
tle Paul, Phil. ii. 5, declares : Christ Jesus, being in the 
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, 
being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found 
as a man: he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto 
death, even to the death of the cross. Whilst in the form 
of an infant, and wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid 
in the manger, he was adored by the angels as Christ the 
Lord, and God in the highest ; and by the three wise men, 
who, falling down, adored him ; and opening their treas- 
ures, they offered him gifts — gold, frankincense, and 
myrrh — in token of his divinity, lordship, and humanity. 
Will blasphemous Brownson say that the angels and the 
wise men were under a delusion ? that the infant whom 
they saw and adored was not God, but a creature, if any- 
thing ? His divinity is moreover proclaimed by his mira- 
cles. He raised the dead to life, restored the sick, the 
lame, and the blind ; he changed water into wine ; he mul- 
tiplied the loaves and fishes, with which he fed thousands 
in the desert. Even the elements announce his Godhead; 
the earth shook; the sun is eclipsed; the veil of the tem- 
ple is split from top to bottom ; the dead started from the 
graves, came into the city, and were seen by many. By 
rising triumphantly and gloriously from the dead, he 
proves himself to be God, and likewise by passing in 
through the closed doors, in Jerusalem, where the disci- 
ples were gathered together for fear of the Jews. John, 
XX. 19. Christ said to Thomas : Put in thy finger hither, 
and see my hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it 
into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas 



296 TEN HERESIES OF 

answered and said to him: My Lord, and my God. Jesus 
saith to liim: Because tliou hast seen me, Thomas, thou 
hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen, and 
have believed. Many other signs also did Jesus in the 
sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book ; 
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may 
have life in his name. John, xx. 27. It seems to be 
needless to adduce any more proofs for the divinity of our 
Savior ; let us see those for his humanity. 

Matt, xxviii. 18. He appeared in the visible form and 
nature of man to the Twelve, when he declared his divin- 
ity, and furnished them with his own power to teach all 
nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. To whom also he 
showed himself alive, after his passion, by many proofs, 
for forty days ; appearing to them and speaking of the 
kingdom of God, and eating together with them. Acts, i. 
And St. Paul, 1 Cor. xv., says : For I delivered unto 
you first of all, which I also received : How that Christ 
died for our sins, according to the Scriptures ; and that 
he was buried ; and that he rose again the third day, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures ; and that he was seen by 
Cephas, and after that by the eleven ; then he was seen 
by more than five hundred brethren at once ; after that 
he was seen by James, then by all the Apostles, and last 
of all, he was seen by me. Again, 1 Tim. iii. 16 : Evidently 
great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested 
in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto the 
angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed 
in the world, and is taken up in glory. 

However, the neophyte, being puiBfed up with pride, 
and fallen into the judgment of the devil, has gone astray 
and turned aside into vain babbling, desiring to be a 



brownson's quarterly review. 29t 

teacher of the law, understanding neither the things he 
says, nor whereof to affirm, comes out and says : '^that 
God in, or under a finite form, is not God, but a creature, 
if anything. Christ is God, because his person which 
has assumed human nature is Divine, not limited, not 
subjected to the human form." What is his assertion, but 
the Arian heresy, which was condemned by the Council 
of Nice, and by the whole Catholic Church, these eighteen 
hundred years ? 

B. Fulgentius ad Donatum, De Fide Orthodoxa^ saith : 
Now take a few words in regard to the Incarnation of 
the Lord Christ, the Son of God, who justly confesses 
himself to be the truth ; as he is true God, so he is true \l 
man. In whom, as there is the plenitude of the divine 
nature, so in him is also the fullness of the human sub- 
stance. For, as in him is the natural verity of the divin- 
ity, so is the natural verity of the rational soul, and the 
natural verity of the flesh. And for this reason he hath 
the natural divinity common with his Father, and the 
natural humanity common with his virgin mother. 

If any person, therefore, so teach in Christ the true 
divinity, as to strive to deny his true flesli, he is not a 
Christian Catholic but a Manichean heretic. Whereas 
Christ himself said to the doubting disciples : Feel ye 
and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see 
that I have. 

Again ; if any man so preaches in Christ the verity of 
the soul and flesh, so that he would not accept in him the 
verity of the Deity, that is, who thus saith, Christ is man, 
that he would deny him to be God: he is not a Christian 
Catholic, but a Photinian heretic. For as Christ, accord- 
ing to the true divinity, is God, the creator of men: so, 
according to the true flesh, he is the mediator of God and 
man. For he would not at all be a mediator, either if he 



298 TEN HEEESIES OF 

would not have the nature of the divinity common with 
the Father, or the substance of the flesh and soul common 
with men. And inasmuch as the man Christ Jesus is the 
true mediator of men, insomuch he had naturally from 
the Father both the form of God by which he would save, 
and received from the virgin the form of the servant 
which he would save in us. Man would never receive 
from God the grace of salvation, if the communion of the 
divine and human nature had not abided in the person of 
Christ. 

Therefore as the verity of Christ hath the natural 
verity of the divinity from the Father, so it hath the na- 
tural verity of the humanity from the virgin. For the 
only-begotten God vouchsafed to become a recipient of 
flesh and blood in the womb of the virgin, that he might 
be the Savior of the human flesh and soul. He is one, 
in whom is the two- fold, inseparable, indissoluble nature, 
and one person of the two natures. In whom two other 
heretics, holding sentiments directly opposite to one 
another, are known to have entertained different errors: 
to wit, Nestorius and Eutyches. Nestorius, who knew 
there are two natures in Christ, has endeavored to preach 
two persons in him, so that having his heart blinded by 
the obscurity of his falsehood, he hesitated not to engraft 
upon the Christian faith his perfidious lie. For as the 
true faith truly teaches two natures in Christ, so it total- 
ly denies two persons in him. But Eutyches truly believ- 
ing one person in Christ, is found perversely to teach one 
nature in him; whereas the true faith acknowledges at 
once in Christ the propriety of each nature, so that it un- 
derstands the one person of the divinity and the humanity. 

Certainly, Christ is one, who in the beginning was the 
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God. Who (Word) also was made man, and dwelt 
amongst us. Hence is Sabellius vanquished, because, in 



BROWNSOK'S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 299 

that the Word was with God, it is shown that the person 
of the Father is one and that of the Son another. Hence 
also is Ariiis overcome, because in that the Word was 
God, it is shown that the nature of the Father and of the 
Son is one. For showing the propriety of person, it is 
right that the Son alone is called the Word. For showing 
the communion of his nature, it is proper that, as the 
Father is called God, so also the Son is styled God. 
Hence, also, both Manicheus and Photinus are at once 
confounded, in that it is said : And the Word was made 
flesh. Certainly, in the name of the Word is the true 
divinity known; and in the name of the flesh is really the 
true humanity discovered: so that Christ, the Son of God, 
both true God and true man, be known in the natural 
verity of each name. And so, neither Manicheus dares 
to predicate in him a false flesh, nor Photinus be able to 
take from him the natural deity. 

Nestorius also, and Eutyches are confounded by the 
Apostle's words : the one, as he must acknowledge that 
the one person of Christ cannot be doubled ; the other, 
as he must know that the two-fold nature of Christ can- 
not be confounded. He is certainly one Christ, of whom 
the Apostle himself, as heretofore mentioned, saith : Of 
whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according 
to the flesh, who is God over all things, the blessed for 
ever and ever. Where he hath, by the Holy Ghost, fully 
demonstrated both the one person of Christ and the two- 
fold nature. From whom Christ is, according to the flesh, 
who is over all things the blessed for ever, as he by the 
name of God and of the flesh he undoubtedly shows the ve- 
rity of both natures, so by the one name of Christ he hath 
taught the one person of the divinity and humanity. For 
Christ, who is from the fathers according to the flesh, is 
himself over all things, the blessed for ever and ever. 
The nature is not confounded, which the Son of God hath 



300 TEN HERESIES OF 

from the Father, with that nature which the same God 
hath assumed from the Virgin. But Christ had not at 
any time two persons, because the same only begotten 
God, both was born of the Father according to the divin- 
ity, and proceeded from the Virgin according to the flesh. 
And because God the Word was born of God, the same 
Word being made flesh hath come forth as a Bridegroom 
from the bridal-chamber. He being one, and retaining 
the properties of both natures, was crucified from in- 
firmity, and lives by the Divine Power. 

These remarks have I, my dear child, transmitted to 
you, in view of your holy aspirations and divine charity, 
that therefrom some taste for information may be enkin- 
dled in you, and that from that taste ardor for more exten- 
sive reading may grow up in you ; and that inasmuch as 
you advance by the grace of God, insomuch you may 
attentively investigate the sayings of the holy Fathers 
and hoard them deep in your heart : by this means you 
will be able not alone to retain the true faith, but also 
to refute the deadly falsehood of the heretics ; believing 
and firmly holding that in God is one nature and three 
persons ; and that in the only begotten Son of God, Lord 
Jesus Christ, is one person and two natures. 

SEVENTH HERESY. 

Brownson^s Revieiv, page 25, saith : '^ The person of 
Christ is not in, or under a human form, for if it were, it 
would not be a divine, but a human person, since whatever 
is in the form of man is man. Christ is indeed in the form 
of man, yet not because he has parted with the form of 
God and assumed that of man, but because he is literally 
and truly man as well as God, perfect man and perfect 
God in the unity of one divine person." 

Here are couched together in a small sentence two 



brownson's quarterly review, 301 

nefarious heresies which are equally destructive of the 
Christian religion. *' The person of Christ is not in, or 
under a human form," is the Nestorian heresy. *' Christ 
is indeed in the form of man, not because he assumed the 
form of man, but because he is both God and man, in the 
unity of the divine person," is the Valentinian heresy. The 
Nestorian heresy having been exposed and refuted in the 
foregoing pages, let us come to attack the Valentinian. 

Valentinus, an ancient heathen philosopher, embraced 
Christianity, but being puffed with vanity for his learn- 
ing, and the imaginary superiority of his talents, and 
chagrined for the preference that was given to others in 
ecclesiastical promotions, relapsed into the errors of Si- 
mon Magus, and revived the Pagan fiction in regard to 
the imaginary inferior progeny of the deities. He first 
broached his heresies in Cyprus, and afterwards in Italy, 
and was excommunicated by Pope Pius I. — See Epapk- 
aniuSj Heresi, xxxi. TertulL lib. caiitr. Valeiit. Augustin, ad 
Quod Vult Deum. 

Valentinus taught that Christ, sent by the Father, 
had brought with him from heaven a spiritual or celestial 
body, and that he had assumed nothing from the Virgin 
Mary, but that he merely passed through her as through 
a gutter or a pipe, having not assumed any flesh from her. 
Now we see that very heresy revived by the wretched 
Brownson, saying: ^' Christ is indeed in the form of man, 
not because he assumed the form of man, but because he 
is truly both God and man in the unity of the divine per- 
son." Whereas, he allows that Christ is perfect God and 
perfect man, although he assumed not his human nature 
or form upon earth, it must be his opinion that Christ 
brought with him a spiritual or aerial nature from heaven. 
Then he contradicts the creeds. 

Apostles^ Creed. — I believe in Jesus Christ, kis oaly 

U 



303 TEN HERESIES OF 

Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, 
born of the Yirgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, 
was crucified, dead, and buried. 

Nicene Creed. — ^I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the 
only begotten Son of God. Consubstantial with the Fa- 
ther, by whom were all things made. Who for us men 
and for our salvation descended from heaven. And he 
was incarnated by the Holy Ghost of the Yirgin Mary, 
and he was made man. 

Athanasian Creed. — Therefore this is the right faith, 
that we believe and confess that the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, is God and man, perfect God and perfect 
man, of a rational soul and human flesh consisting. For, 
as the rational soul and the flesh is one man, so God and 
man is one Christ. 

And why does Brownson add — ** in the unity of one 
divine person V To signify, of course, that in Christ 
the divinity has totally absorbed the humanity. If so, 
he is opposed to the constant and universal doctrine of 
the Catholic Church. 

Pope LeOf A. D, 450, Epist. decima ad Flavianm, saith : 
*^ The properties of each nature are preserved and united 
in the person of Christ : weakness is assumed by omni- 
potence, lowness by greatness, mortality by eternity. 
He assumed the form of a servant without the stain of 
sin, exalting human nature, not lessening the divine : for 
that emptying in which the invisible God, and the Creator 
and Lord of all, condescended to become one of mortals, 
had been a display of mercy, not a defect of power. 
Therefore he, continuing in the form of God, had created 
man, and he also, in the form of a servant was made 



bkownson's quarterly review. 303 

man. And each form retains, without diminution, its pe 
culiar properties." 

Greg. Magnus, A, D. 590, Horn. X. de Epiphania, on 
Matt, ii. 11, saith : "The wise men entering into the 
house found the child, with Mary, his mother, and falling 
down they adored him ; and opening their treasures, they 
presented to him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 
The gold appertained to the king ; frankincense is used 
in the sacrifices of God ; and with the myrrh are em- 
balmed the bodies of the dead. Therefore the wise men 
proclaim, by the mystical gifts, the properties of Him 
whom they adore ; by the gold, that he was king ; by the 
frankincense, God ; and by the myrrh, mortal man. How- 
ever, there are some heretics who believe that he is God, 
but would not at all believe that he reigns everywhere ; 
they offer him indeed the frankincense, but they would 
not offer also the gold. And heretics there are, that think 
he is a king, but deny that he is God : they offer him the 
gold, but offer not the frankincense. And some heretics 
there are, that confess that he is both God and King, but 
deny that he assumed mortal flesh ; they offer him the 
gold and frankincense, but refuse him the myrrh of as- 
sumed mortality. 

'* But let us offer, at the Nativity of our Lord, gold, to 
manifest our belief in his universal reign; frankincense, 
to confess that he who appeared in time, had been God 
before all ages; and let us offer the myrrh, to declare our 
belief that he, whom we believe to be impassible in his 
divinity, is mortal in our flesh." 

If Christ Jesus had not assumed human nature upon 
earth, the Evangelist had told a falsehood. John, i.: The 
Word was made Jksh and dwelt amongst us. The Archangel 
Gabriel has also erred, when he said to the Blessed Virgin 



304 TEN HERESIES OF 

Mary: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Luke, 
i. 28. : Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and thou 
shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name 
Jesus; he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of 
the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the 
throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the 
house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be 
no end. And the holy prophet who foretold the incarna- 
tion, seven hundred and eighty-five years before the event, 
has likewise erred. Isaias, vii.: Behold a virgin shall be 
with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his 
name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 
Isa. liii.: Who shall declare his generation ? What mortal 
man can declare or comprehend his generation, from the 
Father before all eternity, or from the flesh and blood of 
his virgin mother in time ? Further ; if Christ had not as- 
sumed human nature upon earth, the Evangelist Matthew 
has given a wrong narrative of his generation. Matt. 1. 
The book of the generation of Christ Jesus, the Son of 
David, the Son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, and 
Isaac begot Jacob. Now the generation of Christ was in 
this wise. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to 
Joseph, before they came together, she was found with 
child of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon, Joseph her husband, 
being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, 
was minded to put her away privately; but while he 
thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord ap. 
peared to him in his sleep, saying : Joseph, son of David, 
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which 
is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall 
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. 
For he shall save his people from their sins. Now all 
this was done, that it might be fulfilled which the Lord 
spoke by the prophet, saying : Behold a virgin, &c. There- 
fore it was the Lord kimself who anaouaeed to Joseph, 



brownson's quarterly review. 305 

through the angel and the prophet Isaias, that his wife, 
Mary, had conceived of the Holy Ghost, and that she 
would bring forth a son, the Savior of the world. In 
short, blasphemous Brownson has, by asserting that 
Christ assumed not human form or nature in the womb 
of the blessed Virgin Mary, contradicted the Angel, the 
Evangelist, the Lord himself, and the Church. 

The several heresies broached in the primitive ages by 
the Jews and Gentiles, Orpheus, Homer, Plato, and Cicero, 
in regard to the Unity and Trinity of God; by the Phari- 
sees, Sadducees, Nicolaites, Gnostics, Ebionites, and Val- 
entinians, in regard to the divinity and humanity of Christ 
Jesus, and by the Arians, Unitarians, and Manicheans 
concerning the virginity and maternity of the Mother of 
God, were all shattered into pieces and blown into air by 
the fathers Tertullian, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Cyprian, 
Irenaeus, Cyrill, Basil, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustin, Leo, 
and the Gregories. But as the same heresies are revived 
in all their virulence by Brownson, we shall, with God's 
help, by wielding against him the same holy fathers, 
shatter him also and preserve the faith for posterity. 
However, from the conviction that many are prone to go 
by the broad way, and that they stand in danger, when 
they travel the muddy road, of sinking in the mire, I bring 
with reluctance his heresies before the public, lest the 
ignorant and unstable suck the poison and overlook the 
antidote. But as he unscrupulously scatters the bad seed, 
whilst no person of talents and influence appears disposed 
to take the field, could I also bury in the ground the talent 
of the Lord, the little science which he hath, in his inscru- 
table decree, intrusted to me, an unworthy sinner ? should 
not I, in gratitude to my Divine Master, place my tiny 
candle upon the candlestick, that it may shine to all that 
are in the house ? 

Whereas, the entire edifice of the Christian religion, 



306 TEN HERESIES OF 

the Creed, Commandments, Prayer, Sacrifice, and Sacra- 
ments, our consolation in this world and hope in the world 
to come, stands upon the mystery of the Incarnation and 
Redemption of Christ Jesus, no Christian will, I am con- 
fident, consider me tedious for extending the discussion 
of the great mystery. 

The, Son of God truly assumed flesh of the Virgin Mary ; was 
true man, consisting of a body and soul ; truly suffered and 
died. 

Isaias, vii. 14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and 
bear a son. 

Luke, ii. 6. And it came to pass, that when they were 
there, her days were accomplished, that she should be 
delivered ; and she brought forth the first-born son, and 
wrapped him up in swaddling-clothes and laid him in a 
manger. 

John, i. 14. And the Word was made flesh. 

Rom. i. 3. Who was made of the seed of David, ac- 
cording to the flesh. 

Gal. iv. 4. But when the fullness of time was come, 
God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. 

Phil. ii. 6. Who being in the form of God, thought it 
not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, 
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness 
of men, and in habit found as a man. 

1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one mediator of 
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 

Heb. ii. 14. Therefore, because the children are par- 
takers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner 
hath been partaker of the same : that through death he 
might destroy him who had the empire of death. Verse 16 : 
Nowhere doth he take hold of the angels ; but of the seed 
of Abraham he taketh hold. Wherefore it behoved him 
to be made like unto his brethren. 



brownson's quarterly review. 307 

1 Pet. iii. 18. Because Christ also died for our sins, the 
just for the unjust, that he might offer us to God ; being 
put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit. 

1 Pet. iv. 1. Christ, therefore, has suffered in the flesh. 
1 John, iv. 2. Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus 

Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. 

2 John, verse t. For many seducers are gone out into 
the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in 
the flesh. 

Jacohiis Frater Domini. In Liturgia, — " thou, the only 
begotten Son and Word of God, who art immortal, and 
hast vouchsafed, for our salvation, to put on flesh from 
the blessed mother of God and ever Virgin Mary, and 
wert without any conversion made man and fastened to 
the cross, Christ God, and thou who hast trampled 
upon death by thy death." 

Ignatius, A. D. 100, Ejpist^ ad Trallianos, — '* Shut your 
ears when any person speaks to you, excluding Jesus 
Christ the Son of God, who is the Son of David, who is 
born of Mary, who is truly begotten of God and of the 
Virgin ; but not in the same manner ; ^or God and man 
is not the same. For the Word was made Jiesh and lived 
amongst men without sin. For, says he, John, viii. 46, 
Which of you shall convince one of sin ? He truly did eat 
and drink, was crucified and buried under Pontius Pilate. 
I say, was he not, in the opinion of men, truly crucified and 
buried ? But some atheists and unbelievers say that he 
was, in the opinion of men alone, born, and that he did 
not truly assume a body, and that he was, in the opinion 
alone of men, buried, but that he did not truly suffer. 
Mary truly begot a body, having God dwelling in her ; 
God the Word was truly born of the Virgin, clothed 
with a body, exposed to the same afflictions with us ; 
truly he was born from the womb, who forms all men 



308 TEN HERESIES OF 

in the womb, and he formed for himself a body from the 
blood of the virgin, without any intercourse of a man. 
He was truly born as we also are, he truly drew the 
breast, and used the same food and drink in common 
with us : he was truly baptized by John, not in the opin- 
ion of men, nor as a vision ; he was truly sentenced and was 
truly crucified, not in imagination, phantom, or imposture/' 
Ad Smyrnenses. — *' Jesus Christ, the Son of God^ the 
first born of all creatures, who is the Word of God and 
only Son, born of David according to the flesh, of the 
Virgin Mary, baptized by John, that all justice may be 
fulfilled ; who lived amongst men without sin, and was, 
under Pontius Pilate and the Tetrarch Herod, crucified 
for us in the true flesh, of which we consist, by his divine 
and blessed passion. All these things he endured on our 
account ; and he sufiered truly, not in opinion, as he also 
truly rose again." 

Dionysius Areola gito^^ ^. J). 100. De divinis nominibus, 
Cajp, 2j part 1. — ''The supersubstantial Word is distin- 
guished by the divine works charitably tending towards 
us, because he perfectly and truly assumed substance 
according to us and from us, and discharged and performed 
the chosen and principal parts of that human assumption. 
In these actions neither the Father nor the Spirit is a 
partaker, unless some person say that through benignity 
and clemency, and community of will, they also became 
partakers in the pre-eminent and ineffable divine opera- 
tion which the truly immutable God and the Word of God 
made man for us, has accomplished. But we are igno- 
rant by what other law than the natural he was formed 
of the virginal blood, or walked with dry feet, of corporal 
weight and material gravity, upon the liquid and fleeting 
surface of the water, and the other actions that display 
the excellent nature of Jesus." 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 309 

Justinus Martyr J A. D. 150. In expositione Jidei, — *' Christ 
is shown man from the similar and irreprehensible suf- 
ferings of our nature.^' 

Pialogo cum Tryjphone. — ^' Christ, when born, acquired 
his strength and grew up in the usual way of all mortals 
by using suitable things ; he gave its own to each ac 
tion and stage of life, making use of all sorts of food, and 
living upwards of thirty years, John the precursor having 
heralded his advent." 

Ircnceus, A. D. 180. Lih, iii., Cap. 32. — ''They err who 
say that Christ received nothing of the Virgin : that they 
may discard the inheritance of the flesh, perhaps they 
would also reject the resemblance. If he received not 
from man the substance of the flesh, he was made neither 
man nor the son of man ; and if he was not made the 
same as we were, he performed no great wonder when he 
sufiered and endured. Why descended he into Mary, if 
he received nothing from her ? Or if he assumed nothing 
from her, he would not have used the food that comes 
from the earth, by which our earthly body is nourished. 

Lib, v.. Cap. 1. '' Silly are the people who say that 
he appeared only in vision : for these things were not 
performed in vision, but in real substance. And if, whilst 
he was not a man, he appeared man, he continued not to 
be what he really was, the Spirit of God : since the Spirit- 
is invisible, neither was any reality in him : for that was 
not the thing that it appeared to be. We have already 
observed that Abraham and the other prophets saw him 
through the spirit of prophecy, foretelling in vision that 
which was to come. Therefore, if he appeared then such, 
not being what he appeared, it was by some prophetic 
vision that was made to the people, and we have to look 
for his other advent, in which he will be such as he ap. 
peared to the prophets. And we have proved it one and 

14* 



310 TEN HERESIES OF 

the same thing, to say that he was seen only in vision, 
and that he assumed nothing of the virgin : for he would 
not have truly flesh and blood, whereby he would redeem 
us, unless he had assumed the ancient form of Adam. 
Vain, therefore, are the disciples of Valentinian preach- 
ing this, that they may set aside the salvation of the 
flesh, and reprobate the creation of God." 

Hippolytusj A. D. 220, Epistola ad Reginam quandum. 
'' Therefore, he calls him the first fruit of them that sleep, 
as being the first born of the dead, who, when he rose 
from the dead, and willed to show that the same had risen 
which had also died, the disciples doubting, Thomas being 
called, he said .to him : Feel here and see, that a spirit hath 
not Jiesh and hones, as you see 7ne having. John, xx.'' 

OrigineSj A. D. 230, Lih, de prindpiis. — '* Christ has as- 
sumed a body similar to ours, with this only difference, 
that he was born of the virgin from the Holy Ghost. And 
as Jesus Christ was born and suffered in reality, not in 
vision, he really died by the common death, and also 
really rose from the dead, and having conversed after his 
resurrection with his disciples, he was assumed into 
heaven. 

Lib. 2, i7i Job. — '* In the latter days, God, the only be- 
gotten, descending from heaven, dressing himself from 
the Virgin with the covering of an earthly body, washed 
away the infirmity, uncleanliness also, and the filthiness 
of the whole world, by bearing the sins of all people." 

Synodus Niccena^ A. D. 325, in Symbolo. — ''Who for us 
men and for our salvation descended from heaven, and 
was incarnated with the Holy Spirit, from the Virgin : 
and he was made man. He was crucified for us under Pon- 
tius Pilate, suffered, and was buried." 



brownson's quarterly review. 311 

AthanasiuSj A. D. 340. Epistola ad JSpidetum contra 
H(2ritlcos. — ''You find, they say, nothing in the holy 
Scriptures to prove that God had been in a human body ; 
and the Fathers of the Council of Nice declared that it 
was not the body, but the Son himself was co-eternal 
with the Father, and that it was of the substance of the 
Father : but they confess that the body drew origin to- 
tally from Mary, according to the holy Scriptures. 

Oratione 4, contra Arianos. — " The Word born of Mary 
once came into the world in the latter days, to wash away 
sins, (for it pleased the Father to send his Son, lorn of a 
woman J made under the law;) for it is written, that the 
Word having assumed human flesh, was made man, and 
that he suffered in that flesh for us : for Peter attests, 1 
Peter, ii., Christ having suffered in the flesh for us: to make 
himself manifest, and that we all may believe that he who 
was always God, was afterwards made man for our sake : 
for the divinity^ as the Apostle saith, hath dwelt corporally in 
the flesh. Which is the same thing as to say : When he 
was God, he assumed a certain proper body, and using it 
as organ, he was made man for our sake. Therefore the 
properties of the flesh are predicated of him also, because 
he dwelt in the flesh, namely, to hunger, to thirst, to suf- 
fer, to be weary, and other such acts as are peculiar to 
the flesh." 

Basilius Magnus. A. D. 310.* In Liturgia. — ^' only 
begotten Son and Word of God, when thou wert immortal 
thou hast vouchsafed for our salvation to be incarnated 
and to be immutably made man of the blessed Mother of 
God and ever Virgin Mary, and to be crucified." 

Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus, A. D. 370. Catechesi 4, de 
generatione Filii. — '' Believe thou that this only begotten 
Son of God descended for our sins from heaven to earth: 



312 TEN HERESIES OP 

and that he assumed the humanity of the same affections 
witli us ; that he was born of the Holy Ghost and of the 
Virgin Mary. He assumed human nature, not in imagin- 
ation, or vision, but in reality ; passing not as if by a 
pipe through the Yirgin ; but being truly made man of 
her ; he having been nourished and truly fed of her suck, 
as we also are. If that incarnation be visionary, visionary 
is also our salvation. 

Catechesi 13, Illuviinafoi'um. — '' Jesus has truly suffered 
for mankind, for the cross is not a vision, nor the redemp- 
tion an opinion, nor is his death imaginary and salvation 
fabulous ; for if his death be imaginary, they would have 
been true who said : We rememher that the seducer said whilst 
living. Therefore the passion is true ; for he was truly 
crucified. We are not confounded, nor do we deny him, 
but rather we glory in him." 

EpiphaniuSf A. D. 380. Hceresi 10. — *^ He descended 
from heaven and was conceived, not of the seed of man, 
but by the Holy Ghost, and had truly a body of Mary, and 
formed for himself flesh from the blessed Mother, and re- 
ceived a human soul and mind ; all that which man is, 
(sin excepted,) he united himself by his deity, and he was 
born in Bethlehem. 

Hctresi 77. — *' The Word when he came, truly fulfilled 
all things that had been |jpretold of him : Behold, a Vir- 
gin shall conceive in her womb. He was in truth, not in 
imagination, conceived ; he was truly carried in the womb, 
was truly present in the flesh, having in truth flesh and soul, 
and, in truth, a mind, being, in truth, all things that man is, 
except sin, begotten in reality of the virginal womb, and of 
the blessed Virgin, not from the seed of man. Having, as 
already said, flesh, soul, and mind in reality, been born in re- 
ality of his mother, rolled in swaddling-clothes in the cradle, 
carried by Mary and brought into Egypt, returning from 



brownson's quarterly review. 313 

Egypt, and tarried in Nazareth, came to the Jordan and 
was baptized by John, and tempted by the devil; he had 
called the disciples in reality, and preached the Kingdom 
of Heaven in reality, as he is found to have done all things 
in reality. He was betrayed by Judas, arrested by the 
Jews, dragged to Pontius Pilate, and by him adjudged 
to death, and nailed on the cross, saying, I thirst, give me to 
drink; receiving in reality vinegar with gall, tasting it, 
and receiving no more drink ; fastened to the cross, in 
reality he exclaims, Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani; in reality 
inclining the head and expiring ; in reality the body was 
taken down, and was in reality received and dressed by 
Joseph, and deposited really in the tomb, and secured with 
a great stone. Descending in the Deity with the soul into 
hell, and liberating in strength and power the chained pris- 
oners : God the Word returning with the blessed soul, 
by which he redeemed the captives : rising again the 
third day, in truth, with body and soul, and all the organs: 
being found with the disciples during forty days, blessing 
them in reality at Mount Olivet, ascending in reality into 
heaven, in the presence of the disciples, he was raised up, 
in reality into the clouds ; sitting at the right hand of 
the Father in reality, in the same body and Deity, in the 
same pefect humanity, with which he united all things 
into one, and one spiritual perfection, God existing in 
glory, sitting for judging the living and the dead : he 
shall come in reality. And nothing is altered, but all 
things were fully completed in him. 

Joannes Chrysostomus, A. D. 400. Homilia 24, in priorem 
ad Corintkios.—" Death has not carried away this body, 
pierced by the nails and torn by the whips. When the 
sun saw this body fastened to tlie cross, it turned aside 
its rays. On account of this event was the veil rent, and 
the rock split, and the earth shook. This is that body 



314 TEN HERESIES OF 

that weltered in blood, that was struck with the lance, 
that emitted salutary fountains for the salvation of the 
whole world, the one certainly of blood, and the other 
truly of water. 

Homilia de Joanne Baptista. — *' Holy mother, blessed 
Mary, mother and virgin, was a virgin before the birth, 
a virgin after the birth. I wonder at this, how the virgin 
was born of the virgin; and how after the nativity of the 
virgin, the mother is a virgin. Would you know how he 
was born of the virgin, and how the same mother was after 
the nativity a virgin ? The doors were closed and Jesus 
entered in. K'obody doubts that the doors were closed. 
He who entered in by the closed doors was not a phan- 
tom, nor was he a spirit, but he was truly a body. For 
why does he say: Behold and see that a spirit hath not flesh 
and bones, which you see me having. He had flesh, he had 
bones; and the doors were shut. How have the bones 
and flesh passed in by the closed gates ? You know not 
how this happened, and ascribe it to the power of God. 
Ascribe to the power of G-od that he was bom of a virgin, 
and still the same virgin was a virgin after the birth." 

Homilia 25, in 3, Cap. Joannis. — " The Spirit has formed 
the flesh of Christ, not, however, of nothing, (for what 
need there was of a mother,) but of virginal flesh. But 
how that was done I am not able to explain ; but it was 
effected, lest any body think that the birth was alien 
from our nature.'' 

Cyrillus Alexandrinus, J.. J). 430. De recta in Deum 
fide ad Theodosium. — ^'Heretics err, not knowing the 
Scriptures, nor the great mystery of godliness, which 
is Christ, who was manifested in the flesh, was justi- 
fied in the Spirit, appeared to the angels, believed in the 
world, taken up in glory. 1 Tim. iii. They have to con- 
demn the ancients, and say that the Apostles were false 



bro-wnson's quarterly review. 315 

teachers, to whom Christ saith : Go, teach ye all nations; 
or if they shudder for going that length, and if they 
would hold the true faith on Christ, let them bid fare- 
well to their errors and hold the Scriptures in the true 
sense, and let them come to the truth by the unerring 
paths of the saints. For there had not been any other 
mystery of godliness than that Word which was given 
unto us by God the Father, which was manifested in the 
fiesh, born of the blessed Virgin, Mother of God, which 
assumed the form of a servant, which was seen by the 
angels who adored him when he was born, saying : Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will; 
announcing, moreover, to the shepherds, for our sake, that 
the Word was God, they say : Behold, this day is Urn to 
you a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. 
And this shall he a sign unto you : you shall find the infant 
wrapped in swaddling-dothes, and in the manger. Whereas, 
his birth from the Virgin and his nativity in the flesh is 
so manifest, is it not insanity and absurdity to pronounce 
as imaginary a dispensation that is so clear and evident ? 
For if It had been a shadow or a vision, and not a true 
incarnation, neither had the Virgin begot him, nor has 
the Word of God the Father adopted the seed of Abra- 
ham, nor was he made flesh like his brethren. For they 
are not shadows nor types, but they are, as they appear 
to us, clothed with palpable and visible bodies and earthly 
flesh, and subject, as we are, to infirmities and corrup- 
tion. Therefore, the Word, if he had not flesh in which he 
would suffer, if he had not been tempted, could not re- 
lieve those that are tempted. For a shadow could not 
suffer. What sort was that back which he exposed for 
us, or the cheeks which were buffeted, or the head which 
was crowned with thorns, or the side that was opened by 
the spear, from which flowed the precious blood and water 
for our sanctification ? 



316 TEN HERESIES OF 

" If any more proofs be needed, neither has Christ died 
for us, nor has Christ risen again. If their assertions be 
true, the faith is vain, the hope of all those who died in 
the faith of Christ crucified is vain. Such is the impression 
of the Apostle, 1 Cor. xv. : I have delivered first of all unto 
you what I have received ; namely, that Christ died for 
all our sins, according to the Scriptures ; and that he was 
buried, and rose again the third day, according to the 
Scriptures ; and that he appeared to Cephas and to the 
twelve, then he was seen by more than five hundred 
brethren at once, of whom many remain yet, and some 
have slept. He was seen by James, then by all the Apos- 
tles, and last of all, he was seen by me, as by one born 
out of time. But if Christ be preached, as having risen 
from the dead, how do some of you say that there is not 
a resurrection of the dead, and that Christ has not risen ? 
If Christ had not risen, our preaching is vain, and your 
faith is vain also. Yea, and we are found false witnesses 
of God, because we have given testimony against God, 
that had raised up Christ ; whom he hath not raised up, 
if the dead rise not again. Pray, tell me, how would a 
shadow die ? Then how could the Father have raised up 
Christ, if he be a fleeting shadow, and could not be held 
by the chains of death. Therefore, let us cast off their 
filthy vomit, and let us look upon their assertions as 
fables, and the silly cogitations of an impious brain. 
For the holy Apostle has long since pointed them out to 
us, saying that many false prophets would come into 
the world, 1 John, iv. In this know ye the Spirit of God. 
Every spirit that confesses that Christ came in the flesh, 
is of God ; and every spirit that confesses not Christ, is 
not of God ; and he is the spirit of Antichrist, of which 
you have heard that he will come, and he is now in the 
world. Certainly, if Christ be not a true man, he would 
not have ascended in the flesh to God the Father, who is 
in heaven ; nor would he, like a man, conie again." 



brownson's quarterly review. 817 

Con. Ejphes, Sub. Celestino Papa Adversus JS^estorium, A. D. 
430, Cap. 1. — If any man confess not that God is verily 
Emmanuel, and, therefore, the Blessed Virgin is the mother 
of God (for she begot him according to the flesh : The 
Word of God was made fleshy John, 1,) let him be anathema. 

Cap. 2. — If any man confess not that the Word of 
God the Father was united to the flesh, according to the 
substance, and that there is one Christ with his proper 
flesh, that is, that the same God is at once also man, let 
him be anathema. 

Cap. 3. — If any man divide in one Christ the sub- 
stances after the unity, joining thennby that connection 
alone, and that relationship which is efiected according to 
the dignity of the flesh, or even according to authority 
and power, and not rather by the union which is made by 
the natural unity, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 4. — If any man divide among two persons or 
substances these words which are contained in the Apos- 
tolical and Evangelical writings, or which are said of 
Christ by the saints, or by himself, and apply some of 
them to man, as if specially understood apart from the 
Word of God, and others, as if becoming God, to the 
Word alone of God the Father, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 5. — If any man dare say that the man Christ is 
Theophoron, that is, God-bearing, and say not rather that 
he is verily God, as well as Son by nature, in that the 
Word was made flesh, and communicated, as we do, with 
flesh and blood, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 6. — If any man say that the Word of God the 
Father, is the God or Lord of Christ, or not rather con- 
fess him to be at once both God and man, because the 
Word was made flesh, according to the Scriptures, let 
him be anathema. 

Cap. 1. — If any man say that the man Jesus was, as 
if aided by the co-operating God, the Word, and render 



318 TEN HERESIES OF 

the glory of the only begotten, as if unto another besides 
him, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 8. — If any man dare to say that the assumed 
man is to be adored with God the Word, and con-glorified, 
and to be named God, as one with another, (for the syllable 
con J which is prefixt, may seem to call for that reading,) 
and' venerate not rather by one supplication Emmanuel, 
and render unto him one glorification, according to the 
saying. The Word was made flesh, let him be anathema. 

Cap 9. — If any man say that the one Lord Jesus Christ 
was glorified by the Holy Ghost, as if he used through 
him another person'# power, and received from him effici- 
ency against the unclean spirits, and ability to perform 
divine miracles before men ; and confesses not rather his 
proper Spirit, by which he performed the divine miracles, 
let him be anathema. 

Cap. 10. — That Christ is the Pontiff and Apostle of our 
confession, the holy Scriptures declare : For he offered him- 
self for us as an odor of sweetness to God and to the Father. 
Therefore, if any man say that he was made our Pontiff and 
Apostle, not the very Word of God, (when he was made 
flesh and man according to us men,) but as if another 
man besides him especially born of the woman ; or, if he 
say that he offered himself a victim for himself, and not 
for us, (for he that knew no sin at all needed no sacrifice,) 
let him be anathema. 

Cap, 11. — If any man confess not the flesh of the Lord 
to be life-giving, and the proper flesh of the very Word 
of God the Father, but as of some other person besides 
him, joined to him by dignity, or, as if having a divine 
habitation, and not rather to be life-giving, because it was 
made the proper flesh of the Word, competent to vivify 
all things, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 12. — If any man confess not that the Word of 
God suffered in the flesh, and was crucified in the flesh, 



brownson's quarterly review. 319 

and tasted death in the flesh ; and that he was made the 
first-born from the dead, inasmuch as he, God, is life and 
life-giver, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 13. — The great and holy Council, therefore, saith 
that he who was naturally born of God the Father is the 
only begotten Son, God of true God, light of light, by 
whom and with whom hath the Father made all things ; 
that he descended from heaven, was incarnated and made 
man, suffered and rose the third day, and ascended again 
into heaven. These sayings we should follow, these dog- 
mas we should obe^^, considering what it is to be incar- 
nated, and the Word of God to be made man. For we 
say not that the nature of God was converted, or changed, 
or made flesh ; nor that it was transformed into perfect 
man, which consists of soul and body; but rather that he 
united to himself flesh, animated by a rational soul, and 
that the Word was substantially, ineffably, and incom- 
prehensibly made man, and that he may be called the Son 
of man also, not from mere will only, nor from the sole 
assumption of the person, but because the opposite na- 
tures have coalesced, one Christ and Son however result- 
ing from both, the diversity of the natures being not va- 
cated or cancelled by the union, but because they effected 
for us at once one God, and Christ, and the Son, that is, 
the divinity and humanity of that mysterious and ineffa- 
ble union of copulation. 

Therefore, he who before all ages was born of the 
Father, was also carnally born of a woman in time. Not 
that his divine nature took origin from the blessed Yirgin, 
nor that he had on his own part any need to be born again 
after that nativity which he had from the Father, (it would 
be both silly and absurd to say, that he who was before 
all ages, and co-eternal with the Father, weuld need a 
second birth for coming into existence;) but because he 
has, for our salvation, assumed human nature, and come 



320 TEN HERESIES OF 

from a woman, therefore he is said to be carnally born. 
Nor is an ordinary man first born of the Virgin, and then 
at last the Word dwelt in him; but he has in the very 
virginal womb united to himself flesh, and endured a 
carnal generation, and effected the birth of his flesh. Thus 
we say that he suffered and rose again from the dead, not 
because God the Word suffered in his proper nature, or 
received the scars and cuts of the nails or other wounds, 
(God, as being incorporeal, is above suffering;) but be- 
cause that body which was made of his own, endured this. 
Consequently, he is said to have endured all these things 
for us. In that body which suffered, was God, who could 
not suffer. In the same manner we understand his death: 
for the life and life-giving God the Word is immortal, and 
by nature incorruptible, but because his own jprojptr hody^ 
Heb. ii. 9, has by God^s grace tasted death for us all : for which 
reason he is said to have suffered death for us; not that 
he experienced death in his own nature, (which would be 
insane either to think or say ;) but that, as we have said, 
his own true flesh tasted death ; also, when his own true 
flesh rose again, we say resurrection, not because he had 
fallen into corruption, (which God forbid,) but because his 
body rose again. Therefore we confess one Christ and 
Lord, not as adoring man with the Word, to obviate every 
sort of division, but adoring now one and the same per- 
son, because his body is not alien from the Word, with 
which he himself sitteth by the Father. We say not so, 
as if two Sons be sitting, but one by unity with the flesh; 
as if we be disposed to admit such an union was substan- 
tially effected, or a passible, or an unbecoming one, we fall 
into the error of asserting two Sons. For we must neces- 
sarily say and discern, that man was separately dignified 
with the sole appellation of Son, and again, that the Word 
which is from God in man, is really the Son of God; but we 
must not divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two persons. 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 321 

The coalition of persons imagined by some people, is 
not of the true faith. For the Scriptures say not : The 
Word of God hath assumed the person of man, but that 
it was made flesh. Which proves that the Word of God 
had, as we have, the elements of flesh and blood, and that 
he has made our body properly his own ; and that he, as 
man, came from a woman without discarding or exclud- 
ing the Deity, or that generation which he had from the 
Father ; but that God in assuming flesh continued what 
he had been. In this manner, therefore, is a profession 
of the true faith made. We have learned that the holy 
fathers were of this way of thinking ; and that they con- 
sequently hesitated not to call the blessed Virgin Theoto- 
coUj that is, Mother of God ; not because the nature of the 
Word and the Deity took origin in the blessed Virgin, 
but because from her was born that body, animated with 
a rational soul, to which the Word of God, being substan- 
tially united, is said to have been carnally born. Where- 
fore I write these things to you, through the charity that 
is in Christ Jesus, as a brother, beseeching and conjuring 
before God and his angels that you hold these same prin- 
ciples with us, and also that you promulgate them, to the 
purpose that the peace of the churches be preserved, and 
the bond of charity and harmony remain unbroken among 
the priests of God." 

A long list of Greek fathers, councils, and historians, 
equally clear and strong, are here omitted, from the firm 
conviction that these, which are given, afford the pious 
and candid reader a full and satisfactory evidence of the 
faith and doctrine which came down from the Apostles in 
the churches of Greece, Asia, and Egypt, in regard to the 
Incarnation of Christ our Lord, and the maternity of the 
blessed Virgin Mary. Now see the proofs and authorities 
iR the Western Church, 



322 tiTn heresies or 

TertullimmSj A. D. 200. Lib, de Came Christie Cap. 1. — 
''Let us examine the corporal substance of the Lord ; 
there being no question raised about his spiritual. The 
reality of his flesh, and its quality, is under consideration 
— whether it had been, whence it came, and what was its 
quality. The denial of it would extinguish our resurrec- 
tion. Marcion, to prepare the way for the denial of 
Ohrist^s flesh, has denied his nativity, or that he might 
discard the nativity, he has denied the flesh, lest they mu- 
tually corroborate one another, and lest the nativity and 
the flesh correspond ; as if he might not by the same 
heretical presumption, after having admitted the flesh, 
either deny the nativity, as his disciple and deserter 
Apelles had done, or after having confessed both the 
flesh and nativity, he might get rid of them by false in- 
terpretation, as his fellow-student and seceder, Yalentine, 
did. The man who feigned a visionary flesh for Christ, 
might also invent an imaginary nativity, such as the con- 
ception, pregnancy, and birth of the Virgin ; and then 
the whole system of the infancy would be visionary." 

Cap. 5. — ''Now answer, you murderer of the truth : 
Was not God truly crucified ? Was he not truly dead, 
and really interred ? Has he not truly risen again ? If he 
had not truly died, Paul erroneously declared that he knew 
among us nothing but Christ crucified ; he erroneously 
taught that Christ was buried ; erroneously proclaimed 
that he rose again. Therefore our faith is erroneous, and 
all that we hope from Christ is a phantom. You, the 
most wicked of men, justify the murderers of God ; for 
Christ suffered nothing from them, if he suffered nothing 
in reality. Spare the only hope of the whole world, you 
that strike at the essential foundation of the faith. What 
is the humiliation of God, is exaltation to me. My sal" 
vation is secure, if I am not ashamed of my Lord. He 
saith : He that is ashamed of me, I will also be ashamed 



brownson's quarterly review. 323 

of him. The Son of God is not ashamed to be born of a 
woman : and the Son of God died, was buried, and rose 
again : it is credible, because it is foolishness ; it is cer- 
tain, because it is impossible with men. But how could 
these things be true in him, if he had not been a real 
man ; if he had not truly in him that which might be 
stabbed, that which might endure death, that which might 
be buried, and that which might rise again ? That is to 
say, a flesh interfused with blood, furnished with bones, 
interwoven with nerves, and interspersed with veins ; 
that which is susceptible of birth and death, human flesh, 
of course, made of a woman, made under the law. 

In A'pologetico, Cajp. 21.— '^He is a ray of God, as had 
been prophesied in all former ages, he descended into the 
Virgin, and his flesh was formed in her womb : he was 
born man joined with God ; the flesh, furnished with a 
soul, is nourished and matured into boyhood ; he speaks, 
teaches, and works ; and this is Christ.^' 

^ Cyjprianus, A, JD. 250, Epist, 73.— '^ Does Marcion hold 
this Trinity ? Does he declare the same Father, Creator, 
whom we also declare ? Does he acknowledge the same 
one Christ to be the Son, born of the Virgin Mary, who 
was the Word made flesh, who has taken away our sins, 
who has conquered death by dying, who first initiated 
the resurrection of the flesh in himself, and proved to his 
disciples that he rose again in the same flesh ? 

De bono FatienticE.—'' The Son of God, descending from 
the high heavens to the earth, disdained not to put on 
human flesh, and, whilst he was not himself a sinner, to 
bear the sins of others ; laying aside, in the meantime, 
immortality, he suflered himself to become a mortal, that 
the innocent be pfit to death for the guilty." 

Eutychianus, A. D, 375, Epist. ad Episcopos Baticce.^^ 
*' The Creator of man had no need to become man, but 



824 TEN HERESIES OF 

we needed that he would become flesh, and that he would 
dwell amongst us ; that is, that by the assumption of 
flesh, he alone would possess the internal properties of 
all flesh. His humiliation is our exaltation, his dishonor 
our honor. He, being God, made himself a partaker of 
flesh, that we in our turn, being renewed in the flesh, be- 
come sharers in the divinity." 

Ladantius, A. D. 320. De vera sapientia et religioTiej lib, 
4, Cap. 13. — " That Christ was man, Jeremias teaches, say- 
ing : And he is man, and who knew him ? Isaias, also : 
And God will send a man to them, and he will save them ; 
judging, he will heal them. And Moses, in Numbers, 
thus saith : A star shall rise from Jacob, and a man shall 
spring up from Israel." 

AmhrosiuSy A. D. 370. De incarnatioms Dominicce. mys- 
terio, Cap. 2. — '' This is said (if thou ofierest rightly, but 
dividest not rightly, thou sinnest,) to Valentinian and 
Manicheus, who imagined that the reality of the human 
flesh was not assumed by Christ. 

Lib. 1, de Sacramentis, Cap. 5. — ''Remember that I said : 
Christ has assumed flesh, not a would-be flesh, but the 
reality of flesh ; Christ has really assumed flesh." 

Hieronymns, A. D. 390. Ad Cap. 14, Matthel — ''If, ac- 
cording to Marcion and Manicheus, our Lord was not born 
of the Yirgin, but was seen as an apparition, how are the 
Apostles frightened lest they see an apparition, and so 
forth. Whosoever imagine that the body of the Lord was 
not real, because he walked upon the loose water, a fleet- 
ing and aerial substance, let them say Jiow Peter walked 
upon it, whom they will not deny to be a real man. 

Ad Cap. 4, Epist. ad Gal. — "Remark carefully, that 
he said, twt made by the woman, as Marcion and the other 



brownson's quarterly review. 326 

heretics would have it, who pretend that the Lord's flesh 
was visionary, but from the woman, that he may be be- 
lieved not to be made by her, but from her." 

Prudentius, A, D. 380. In Apotkeosi contra Ehionem. 

*' He carries the work which he formed ; the maker is not 
ashamed to carry what he made, the body, I say, and the 
soul : he formed it with his own hands, and breathed the 
soul into it with his mouth. God has assumed the whole 
man, because the whole man was made by him." 

Augustinus A, D. 400. Hc^resi 11.— '^ Valentinian says 
that Christ was sent by the Father, that is, by the pro- 
found spiritual, or that he brought with him a celestial 
body, and that he assumed nothing from the Virgin Mary, 
but passed through her, as if through a vein or pipe, with- 
out assuming any flesh from her. 

Haresi 21.— '^ The Cerdonians say that Christ himself, 
born of a female, neither had flesh nor was truly dead, 
nor sufiered anything, but that he feigned the passion. 

De fide contra Manic/ujeos^ Cap. 26. — '*We believe that 
the Lord assumed true man, and that in him, he, the in- 
visible God, visibly appeared to mankind; and that in 
him he lived among men ; that in him he suffered afflic- 
tions from men ; that in him he taught man from whom 
he should flee, what he should suffer, whither he should 
go." 

Ruffinus, A. D. 400. In Apologia pro fide sua ad Anas^ 
tasium.—'' We also confess that the Son of God, born in 
these latter days, assumed of the Virgin and the Holy 
Ghost the flesh and soul of human nature, in which he 
suffered and was buried, and rose again the third day • 
rising in the same flesh which had been deposited in the 
sepulchre." 

15 



326 TEN HERESIES OF 

Leo Magnus^ A. D. 450, In Solemnitate Nativitatu 
Domini, Sermone 1, Cap, 1. — ''The Son of God according 
to the fullness of time, which the inscrutable depth of the 
divine counsel had disposed, assumed the nature of the 
human race to reconcile it to its author; that the inventor 
of death, the devil, be subdued by that nature which he 
had conquered/' 

De Epiphaniaj Sermone 7, Cap. 8. — '' The only begotten 
Son of God has condescended by one stretch of his ma- 
jesty, both to be born as a man, and to be murdered by 
men.'' 

Epistola decima ad Flaviamim contra Entychetis perfidiam 
et hercBsimy Cap. 1. — ''By the perusal of your charity's let- 
ter, and of the Acts of the Bishops there assembled, we 
are finally made acquainted with the scandals which have 
occurred among you, and the attacks which are made 
upon the integrity of the faith. The things which had 
been previously hidden are now brought before us. Eu- 
tyches, who seemed honored with the clerical name, is 
now represented as extremely ignorant and imprudent, 
so that even the Prophet, Ps. xxxv., saith of him : He 
hath devised iniquity in his led. What is more iniquitous 
than to hold evil thoughts, and not to take the advice of 
the wise and the learned ? Into that pit do they fall, who, 
when any difficulty crosses them in their search for the 
truth, have not recourse to the Prophetical sayings, or to 
the Apostolical writings, or to the Evangelical author- 
ities, but to themselves. Thus they become the teachers 
of error, since they had not been the disciples of the truth. 
What information could he glean from the sacred pages 
of the Testaments, who understands not even the first 
principles of the Creed itself. Even what is uttered 
throughout the world by all regenerated persons, is not 
yet planted in the heart of that old man." 

Ca'p. 2. — "Not knowing, therefore, what he ought to 



brownson'8 quabteelt review. 32T 

believe concerning the Incarnation of the Word of God, 
and being unwilling to gain any knowledge of it in the 
extensive field of the holy Scriptures, he should at least 
know from hearing, that the constant and uniform con- 
fession of the faithful throughout the whole world is : 
that they believe in God the Father Almighty, and in 
Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the 
Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. With these three sen- 
tences are the machinations of almost all heretics shatter- 
ed. For, when the Father is believed to be God, omnipo- 
tent and eternal, it follows that the Son is co-eternal with 
him, differing in no respect from the Father, as being born 
God of God, omnipotent from omnipotent, co-eternal from 
eternal, not posterior in time, not inferior in power, not 
dissimilar in glory, not divided in essence: the same only 
begotten of the eternal Father is born eternal by the 
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary: which temporal nativity 
neither detracts from, nor adds to, the divine and eternal 
nativity, but totally tends to restore fallen man ; to over- 
come death, and the devil who held the dominion of death : 
for we could not overcome the power of sin and of death' 
had he not assumed our nature and made it his own' 
whom sin could not pollute, nor death retain. Because he 
was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the 
Virgin mother, who begot and conceived him without 
violation of her virginity. 

"But if the man could not draw from this pure fount- 
ain of the Christian doctrine the true knowledge, by reason 
that the splendor of the truth, is stifled by the innate 
darkness of his heart, he might have learned the heavenly 
doctrine published by the Evangelist, Matt. i. : The gene- 
ration of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham 
He might also have consulted the Apostle, Rom i • Paul 
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle sepa- 
rated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised 



828 TEN HERESIES OF 

before by his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning 
his Son who was made to him of the seed of David, ac- 
cording to the flesh. He might also have turned his at- 
tention to the prophesies, and learned God's promises to 
Abraham, Gen. xxii. IS : In thy seed shall all the nations 
of the earth be blessed ; and lest he would doubt the pro- 
priety of this seed, he might have followed the Apostle, 
Gal. iii. 16 : To Abraham were the promises made, and to his 
seed. He saith not : And to his seeds, as of many, but as 
of one. And to thy seed, which is Christ. He might have by 
heart the words of Isaias, vii., saying : Behold a virgin 
shall conceive and bear a Son^ and his name shall be called Em- 
manuel, which being interjpreted, is, God with us. He might, 
too, have faithfully read the same prophet's words : A 
child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the govern- 
merit is upon his shoulders ; and his name is called the angel of the 
great counsel, wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, prince of 
peace, the Father of the world to come. Not delusively say- 
ing that the Word was made flesh, and born in a human 
form of the Yirgin without the reality of the maternal 
body. Or, he might have imagined that our Lord Jesus 
Christ is not of our nature, because the Angel sent to the 
blessed Mary, ever Yirgin, saith, Luke, i. : The Holy Ghost 
shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall over- 
shadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born 
of thee, shall be called the Son of God, that, although the 
child conceived of the virgin was of divine origin, the 
flesh of the child conceived was of the nature of the 
virgin conceiving it. But not so are we to understand 
that generation, singularly astonishing and astonishingly 
singular, that by the novelty of the creation, the propriety 
of the race be cancelled. For the Holy Ghost gave 
fecundity to tiie virgin, the reality of the body is assumed 
from her body, and when Wisdom built for itself a house, 
The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us : that is, in that 



brownson's quarterly review. 329 

flesh which he asssumed from man, and which the spirit 
of rational life animated. 

Cajp. 3. — Therefore, the properties of each nature being 
preserved and united into one person, humility being re- 
ceived by majesty, infirmity by power, mortality by eter- 
nity, and, for liquidating the debt of our condition, the 
inviolable nature is united to the passible nature, that, 
consistently with our remedies, the one and the same 
mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, might 
both die from the one and might not die from the other. 
Therefore, in the entire and perfect nature of true man is 
the true God born, whole in his own properties and whole 
in ours. For the properties which the deceiver introduced, 
and deluded man admitted, have no place in the Saviour. 
Not because he assumed a community of human infirmi- 
ties was he a partaker of our sins. He assumed the form 
of a servant without a stain of sin, exalting human na- 
ture, not lowering the divine : for that emptying by which 
he, invisible God, made himself visible, the Creator and 
Lord of all things, willed to become one of mortals ; the 
condescension was an act of mercy, not a defect of power. 
He, therefore, continuing in the form of God, the same 
was in the form of a servant made man, each nature re- 
taining without defect its peculiar properties. And as 
the form of God cancels not the form of the servant, so 
the form of the servant lessens not the form of God. 
Because the devil gloried that through his fraud man had 
been deceived, stripped of his heavenly graces, bereft of 
immortality, and fallen under the dread sentence of death, 
and that he himself had found some solace in his miseries 
in the company of a fellow-prevaricator, and that God 
also had, consistently with justice, to commute his own 
decree in regard to man whom he had created in such 
dignity : a dispensation of the secret decree became ne- 
cessary, that the immutable God (whose will cannot be 



330 TEN HERESIES OF 

deprived of its benignity) would by a secret mystery 
carry into effect the former decree of his mercy towards 
us, and that man, hurried into cjime by the deviPs craft 
and wickedness, should not perish in opposition to God's 
purpose. 

Cap. 4. — Wherefore, the Son of God, although reced- 
ing not from his Father's glory, descends to this lower 
world, being generated in a strange order and novel birth. 
Strange order, because God, invisible in his own proper- 
ties, is made visible in ours. He who is incomprehen- 
sible, condescends to become comprehensible. Existing 
before all eternity, he begins to be in time. The Lord of 
the universe, having veiled the immensity of his majesty, 
assumed the form of a servant. The impassible God dis- 
dains not to become a passible man, the immortal to sub- 
mit to the laws of death. And he was in a novel birth 
generated, because the unviolated virginity which knew 
not concupiscence, ministered the material of the flesh. 
Therefore the nature of the Lord is assumed from the 
mother ; not a sin is in the Lord Jesus Christ, born of 
the virgin's womb, because the nativity is miraculous, it 
is unlike our nature. For he who is true God, is also 
true man. And in this unity there is no illusion, since 
the humility of the man and the magnitude of the deity 
are there together. As God is not altered by the humili- 
ation, so man is not absorbed in the dignity. Each form 
discharges its proper oflS.ce in the community of the other; 
that is, the Word fulfills the office of the Word, and the 
flesh acts the part of the flesh. The one shines forth in 
the miracles, the other sinks under the injuries. And as 
the Word has not receded from the equality of his Father's 
glory, so the flesh has not relinquished the nature of our 
race. The Son of God and the Son of man is truly one 
and the same. God, inasmuch as the Word wa« in the 
beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word 



BROWNS ON'S quarterly REVIEW. 331 

was God. Man, inasmuch as the "Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt amongst us. God, inasmuch as by him were 
all things made, and without him was made nothing that 
was made. Man, inasmuch as he was made of a woman, 
made under the law. The nativity of the flesh is a dis- 
play of human nature ; the nativity from a virgin indi- 
cates the divine power. The infancy of the child is shown 
by the lowness of the cradle ; the greatness of the Most 
High is attested by the Twice of the angels. He is like 
men, whom wicked Herod seeks to destroy ; but he is 
the Lord of all things, whom the wise men delight humbly 
to adore. Now as he comes to the baptism of his pre- 
cursor, John, lest the divinity hid under the veil of the 
flesh remain unknown, the voice of the Father sounding 
from the heavens, declares : This is my beloved Son in 
whom I am well pleased. Whom, therefore, as man, the 
crafty devil tempts, the same, as God, the angelic choir 
divinely adores. To hunger, to thirst, to sleep, to be 
weary, is surely a human act. But to feed five thousand 
men with five loaves, to afi*ord to the Samaritan woman a 
draught of the living water, that she might not thirst 
again, to walk with firm steps upon the sea, to command 
the tempest, and to allay the roiling waves, are undoubt- 
edly manifestations of the divinity. Therefore, as it is 
not (that I may omit many things) the part of the same 
nature to weep in compassion over a departed friend, and 
to call him, after four days' interment, by his word, to life 
again, or to hang upon the tree, to turn light into night> 
to cause all the elements to tremble, to be pierced with 
the nails, and to open the gates of paradise to the robber^s 
faith ; so it is not the part of the same nature to say : My 
Father and I are oTie, and to say : The Father is greater than 
me. For, although in the Lord Jesus Christ be one 
person, that of God and man, however there is one thing 
from which the contumely is common in both, another 



332 TEN HERESIES OF 

thing from which the glory is common. From our nature 
he has that humanity which is less than the Father ; from 
the Father he has the divinity equal to the Father. 

Cap. 5. — By reason, therefore, of this unity of person, 
to be understood in both natures, the Son of man is said 
to have descended from heaven, when the Son of God had 
assumed j3esh of that virgin of whom he was born. And 
again, the Son of God is said to be crucified and buried, 
whilst he endured not these things in that divinity by 
which he is the only begotten, co-eternal, and consub- 
stantial with the Father, but in the infirmity of our na- 
ture. Hence, we all confess in the creed the only begot- 
ten Son of God was crucified, dead, and buried, according 
to the saying of the Apostle, 1 Cor. ii. 8, For if they had 
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 
And when our Lord himself and Saviour asked what was 
the faith of his disciples, saying, Matt, xvi., Whom do 
men say the Son of man is ? and when they disclosed the 
various opinions of others, he saith : But whom do you 
say that I am ? I, who certainly am the Son of man, and 
whom you see in the form of a servant, and in the verity 
of flesh, whom do you say that I am ? And when Peter, 
being divinely inspired, and going to benefit by his con- 
fession all nations, saith : Thou art Christy the Son of the 
living God. Being deservedly pronounced blessed by the 
Lord, he drew from the principal rock the solidity of power 
and of name, he who through revelation from the Father, 
confessed that he was Son of the living God, and Christ. 
For one of these properties, if admitted apart from the 
other, avails not to salvation. It is equally sinful to be- 
lieve the Lord Jesus Christ, as God alone, aside from man, 
or man only without God. And the whole forty days after 
the resurrection were spent by the Lord in giving the 
clearest demonstration of both natures, the Godhead and 
the manhood. He conversed with his disciples, and drank 



brownson's quarterly review. 333 

and ate in their company, and permitted his wounds to be 
closely examined by the faithful, in proof of his humanity. 
He entered in by the closed doors, stood in their midst, 
imparted by his breath the Holy Ghost, opened their un- 
derstanding and expounded the gospels, showed the very 
wounds in his hands, and feet, and side, and the several 
other signs of his recent passion, saying : See my hands 
and feet, that it is I, myself : Handle and see : for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones as you see me having, Luke, 
xxiv., John, xx : that it maybe known that the individual 
properties of the divine and human natures abide in him, 
and that so we may understand that the Word is not what 
the flesh is, and that we confess^ the Word and the flesh 
to be the only begotten Son of God. 

'' In this sacrament of faith Eutyches has no share, 
since he confesses not our nature to be in the only begot- 
ten of God, neither by the humility of the mortality, nor 
by the glory of the resurrection. He trembles not at the 
saying of the apostle and evangelist, 1 John, iv. : Evtry 
spirit which confesseth that Christ Jesus is come in the fleshy is of 
God, and every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God, and 
this is antichrist. But what means, to dissolve Jesus, unless 
it to be to separate from him human nature, and to de- 
stroy with impudent figments the mystery of the faith by 
which we have been saved ? The person that is blind in 
regard to the nature of Christ's body, is blind, of course, 
with respect to his passion. For if bethink not that the 
cross of the Lord was false, and doubt not the reality of 
the passion endured for our salvation, whose death he be- 
lieves, he acknowledges also his flesh. He doubts not 
that he was a man of our flesh, whom he acknowledges to 
have been passible : for a negation of the true flesh is a 
negation of the corporal passion. If he admit the Christ- 
ian religion, and turn not his ear from the preachings of 
the gospel, he would see what nature was it that hung 

15* 



834 TEN HERESIES OF 

upon the cross and was pierced with the spear, and he 
would understand that from Christ's side flowed blood and 
water, to irrigate with the laver, and the cup, the Church 
of God. He would also hear the apostle, St. Peter, preach- 
ing that the sanctification of the spirit is effected by the 
sprinkling of the blood of Christ ; neither would he care- 
lessly read the words of the same Apostle, 1 Pet. i. xix. : 
Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition 
of your fathers, hut with the jprecious blood of Christy as of a 
lamb unspotted and undefiled. Also, he would not oppose the 
testimony of St. John the apostle, saying, 1 John, i. 1 : 
And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. 
And again : This is Ifhe victory which overcame the world, your 
faith; 1 John, v. 4. Who is he that overcometh the world, 
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God ? — ^This 
is he that came by water and blood; not by water only, 
but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit which 
testifieth that Christ is the truth. And there are three 
who give testimony in heaven : the Father, the Word, 
and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And 
there are three that give testimony on earth : the spirit, 
the water, and the blood. And these three are one. 
Certainly, the Spirit of sanctification, and the blood of 
redemption, and the water of baptism : which three are 
one, and remain individuals ; and neither of them is sepa- 
rated from its connection. The Catholic Church exists 
and progresses by the belief that in Christ Jesus neither 
the humanity is apart from the true divinity, nor the 
divinity is without the true humanity.^' 

Fulgentius, A. D. 500. De Fide ad Petrum, Cap. 2 — 
'' God loved the world so much that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son. God sent his Son into the world, not to judge 
the world, but to save it. He that is called the Son, if 



brownson's quarterly review. 335 

the same be also the Father, would not be truly called 
the Son, because he would not be born of God, but of the 
Virgin only. In short, the Father would not declare 
from heaven by his own voice that he is his Son : This 
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Nor would the 
Apostle have said of the Father : Who hath not spared his 
own SoUj hnt delivered him up for all men. All these divine 
sayings, promulgated for our instruction, must be true. 
It is a truth which the holy Catholic Church proclaims, 
that the Son alone was born of the Father, according to 
the divinity, and that he is, as well as the Father, im- 
mortal, impassible, and immuta-ble God ; and that accord- 
ing to the flesh, not the Father, but his only begotten Son, 
was born in time, without damage to his eternity, suf- 
fered without damage to his impassibility, died without 
damage to his immortality ; as being true God and eternal 
life, he rose without loss to his incommutability. The 
Son is one eternal God with the Father. I and the Father 
are one. John, x. The same was made for us a true and 
perfect man. He is true man, in that he, being true God, 
has a true human nature ; and he is a perfect man by 
having received human flesh and a rational soul. The 
only begotten God was once born of the Father, and once 
of the Mother. He was born of the Father, God the 
Word, and was born of the Mother the Word made flesh. 
Therefore, the Son of God is one and the same God, born 
before all ages, and born in time ; and each nativity is of 
the one God ; divine, according to which the Creator in 
the form of God is co-eternal God with the Father; divine, 
according to which, emptying himself, and receiving the 
form of a servant, he has formed himself by the reception 
of the same servile form, not only in the conception of the 
maternal womb, when he became man, but also he, God 
made man, came forth from the said maternal womb, and 
the same God made man hung upon the cross, and the 



336 TEN HERESIES OF 

same God made man was deposited in the sepulchre, and 
the same God made man rose the third day from the dead, 
but the same God was laid in the tomb according to the 
flesh alone, and descended into hell according to the soul 
alone; which returning the third day to the flesh, the 
same God rose from the sepulchre according to the flesh 
which was laid in the sepulchre; on the fortieth day after 
the resurrection, the same God made man ascended into 
heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, from thence he 
shall come, at the end of the world, to judge the living and 
the dead. Therefore, the Word made flesh is the only begot- 
ten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, mediator of God 
and men. And he is for this reason mediator, because 
he, God and true man, having with the Father the one 
nature of the divinity, and with tho mother the same sub- 
stance of the humanity, having from us even unto death 
the penalty of our iniquity, having from God the Father 
incommutable justice. For our iniquity, he died tem- 
porally ; through his self-justice he is eternally living and 
will bestow immortality upon mortals. He has certainly 
preserved his humanity perfect in the perfection of his 
divinity. He has, by the reality and incommutability of 
his immortality, absorbed the reality of our mortality by 
meeting death. This is what St. Peter attests, 1 Peter, iii. : 
Christ has swallowed down death that we may be heirs of eternal 
life. St. Paul also teaches, 2 Tim. i. 10: Christ hath de- 
stroyed deathf and brought to light life and incorrujption. There- 
fore, Christ has tasted death because he was a true man, 
and he also swallowed down death because he is true God. 
*' Certainly, he, as the Apostle saith, died from in- 
firmity, but he lives by the power of God ; he is one 
and the same, who, according to the prophecy of holy 
David, Ps. Ixxxvi. 6, is made man in Sion, and the Highest 
himself hath founded her. Consequently, neither is the di- 
vinity of Christ alien from the nature of the Father, ac- 



brownson's quarterly review. 337 

cording to what is said : In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ; 
the same was in the beginning with God. All things 
were made by him ; and without him was nothing made 
that was made ; nor is his humanity alien from the nature 
of the mother, according to that the Word was made flesh 
and dwelt amongst us : for that nature which always re- 
mains begotten of the Father, has without sin assumed 
our nature by being born of the virgin. For neither could 
the eternal and divine nature be, by any means, tempo- 
rally conceived and temporally born of our nature, had 
not the ineffable divinity, by the assumption of human 
reality, temporally received true conception and nativity. 
Thus the true and eternal God is truly conceived in time, 
and born of the virgin : for when the fullness of time came, 
God sent his Son, born of a woman, made under the law, 
to redeem those who were under the law, that we may all 
receive the adoption of the sons of God. John, the Evan- 
gelist, confirming the same position, after having said, 
The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, declares: 
And we have seen his glory, the glory, as it were, of the 
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 
Thus he, the Creator and Lord of all spirits and bodies, 
that is, of all natures, has created the virgin, to be 
created of the virgin ; and her whose creator he was, he 
made his mother, when he was conceived and born of her 
flesh ; the immense and eternal God received the true 
material flesh ; that according to the reality of the ser- 
vile form, God would mercifully become man, and accord- 
ing to the form of God, the same God remaining man, 
would not lack the natural reality. Therefore, believe 
thus : that Christ the Son of God, that is, one person of 
the blessed Trinity, is true God, so that you doubt not 
that his divinity is born of the nature of the Father. 
And believe him thus to be true man, so that you imagine 



338 TEN HERESIES OF 

not that his flesh is of a celestial or serial, or of any other 
nature, but of the same nature with the flesh of all men ; 
that is, the flesh which G-od himself created of the earth 
for the first man, and which he created for all other men, 
whom he creates from men by propagation. Although 
the flesh of Christ, and of all men, be of one and the same 
nature, this, however, which the word condescended to 
unite to himself from the virgin mother, is conceived 
without sin, born without sin ; as according to it the 
eternal and merciful just God is both conceived and born, 
and the Lord of glory is crucified." 

Ad Donatiim dc Fide Orthodoxa. — '' Hear, Israel, the 
Lord thy God is one God. This testimony is so clear and 
strong, that there seems to be no possibility of evading 
it. Since the faithful are forbidden by this precept to 
worship by any means two Gods, let them believe that 
the Father and the Son are naturally one God, so that 
they worship not the Father apart from the Son, nor the 
Son without the Father. If they deny that the Son is the 
Lord their God, they are at once refuted by the testimony 
of the heavenly Father, saying, through the mouth of the 
prophet, Osee^ i. T : And I will have mercy on the house of 
Juda, and I will save them hy the Lord their God. That he 
is the Lord our God the truth itself teaches, where the 
confession of the holy apostle, Thomas, contradicts the 
heretical depravity, exclaiming, John, xx. : My Lord^ and 
my God. Hence it follows, that when they confess with- 
out a doubt that the Father is Lord God, they are com- 
pelled by the prophetical and evangelical truth, to confess 
also that the Son is Lord God. Either let them confess 
that the Father and Son, the propriety of the persons be- 
ing observed, are naturally one God ; or, confessing the 
Father alone as their Lord God, then they must say that 
the Son is neither their Lord nor their God. When they 
say so, they shall never dare to call themselves Christians ; 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 339 

whereas, the Christian takes that name from Christ. He 
cannot be at all a Christian who denies that Christ is his 
Lord God. Therefore, let them confess that the Father 
and the Son are not two Lords, Gods, but one Lord their 
God, if they would hold the true faith, and would not be 
recreant to the legal and evangelical precept. Thus can 
they observe the sense and obligation of that command- 
ment : The Lord thy God thou shall adore, and him alone shall 
thou serve. It is not allowed by the commandment so to 
adore God the Father as to neglect to adore God the Son. 
Whereas, it is certainly written of the Son, in Deuterono- 
my : Be glad, ye heavens, with him at once ; adore him, 
all you his angels. Ps. xcvi. Of him holy David also 
says, Ps. Ixxi. : And all the kings of the earth shall him 
adore, and all nations shall him serve. 

For if the Son were not, according to the divinity, one 
God with the Father, certainly he would not be of the 
same nature with him ; and if he were of another nature, 
he would be without doubt a creature. But if he were a 
creature, the authority of the holy Scriptures would not 
command, but rather forbid him to be served. The holy 
Scriptures, which truly and heavenly teach that there is 
one Lord God, proclaim that the Father is true God, and 
that the Son is also true God. Of the Father, St. Paul 
saith, 1 Thess. i. 9 : You have turned to God from idols, 
to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son 
from heaven, whom he raised up from the dead, Jesus, 
who hath delivered us from the wrath to come. This 
Jesus Christ is not Son of God the Father, in the manner 
that we are sons: he is the proper Son, we are redeemed 
sons ; he is a begotten Son, we are made ; he is the true, 
we are adopted sons. He who is the true Son is also the 
true God, not generated by adoption, but naturally be- 
gotten of the Father. In whom, true God and true Son, 
is the true divinity, for this reason, that he has the natu- 



340 TEN HERESIES OF 

ral nativity from the Father. Wherefore, St. John saith : 
1 John, V. 20 : We know that the Son of God is come ; 
and he hath given us understanding that we may know 
the true God, and may be in his Son, Jesus Christ. This 
is the true God and life eternal. To worship, therefore, 
the true God, and to serve the true God, certainly is not 
to change the truth into a lie. 

Now hear a few words concerning the mystery of the 
Lord's incarnation. Christ the Son of God, who truly 
calls himself the truth, is true God as well as true man. 
In him is the plenitude of the divine nature, and also the 
plenitude of the human substance. For in him is the 
natural verity of the divinity, the natural verity of the 
rational soul, and the natural verity of the flesh. Where- 
fore, he has the natural divinity in common with the 
Father, and he has the natural humanity in common with 
the virgin mother. Therefore, if any man so predicates 
the true divinity in Christ, as to venture to deny his true 
flesh, he is not a Catholic Christian, but a Manichean here 
tic ; whereas, Christ himself saith to the doubting dis- 
ciples : Fedy and see that a spirit has not flesh and bones, 
as you see me having. 

Gregorius Magmis, A, D. 590. Lih. 17, Moralium^ Cajp. 
18. — '^That there be a rational victim, man was to be offered 
up ; and that he might cleanse man from sins, he should 
be a man and without a sin. But what man would be 
without sin if he descended from the mixture of sin ? 
Wherefore, the Son of God came, for our sake, into the 
womb of the Yirgin, and was there made man for us. 
Human nature, not sin, is assumed by him. He was made 
a sacrifice for us: he offered his body for sinners, a victim 
without sin, which might die in the humanity, and cleanse 
by the justice. 

Sy nodus Laterdnensis Sub Martino Pajpa^ A. D. 650. In 



brownson's quarterly review. 341 

Consultatione 5, Cap. 2. — " If any person confess not, ac- 
cording to the Holy Fathers, that one of the blessed and 
consubstantial and adorable Trinity, God the Word, pro- 
perly and truly descended from heaven, and was incar- 
nated by the Holy Ghost and ever blessed Yirgin Mary, 
and was made man, crucified in the flesh, suffered of his 
own accord for us, and was buried; ascended into heaven 
and is sitting at the right hand of his Father; and that 
he will come again with paternal glory, with the same 
flesh assumed by him, being intellectually animated, to 
judge the living and the dead, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 3. — If any man confess not that the mother of 
God, the blessed and ever immaculate Virgin Mary, had 
properly and truly, in the latter days of the world, con- 
ceived of the Holy Ghost, and that she was inviolably 
delivered, her viginity remaining inviolate before and 
subsequent to the birth, let him be anathema. 

Cap. 4. — If any man confess not that there are prop- 
erly and truly two natures of one and the same our Lord 
and God, Jesus Christ, one born incorporally and eternally 
before all eternity, of God the Father, and the other in the 
latter days carnally, of the Virgin Mary ; and that the 
same Lord and God, Jesus Christ, is consubstantial to 
God the Father, according to the Deity, and consubstan- 
tial to the Virgin, according to the humanity, and that 
the same is passible in the flesh, impassible in the Deity 
let him be anathema. 

EIGHTH HERESY— ON THE CHURCH. 

*' The change in the action of the Church, which is a con- 
sequence of the altered state of the world, implies no dere- 
liction of principle. In assimilating to the ages through 
which she passes, she preserves her identity and consist 
ency." — Brownson^s Quarterly Review ^ Jan. 1859. 



342 TEN HERESIES OP 

Jtr. xxiii. 16 : Thus saitlithe Lord of Hosts. Hearken 
not to the words of the false prophets, they speak the vision 
of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. 
Hearken not to Brownson, he speaks the vision of his 
own heart, what he is not able to prove. He blasphemes 
the Eternal Truth, the Wisdom of God, who hath built 
his Church upon the rock against which the gates of hell 
shall never prevail. Matt. xvi. : I say to thee, that thou 
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will 
give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And 
whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound 
also in heaven : whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, 
it shall be loosed also in heaven. And again he saith 
unto him after his resurrection, John xxi. It : Feed my 
sheep. Upon him sole he built his church, unto him hath 
he entrusted the feeding of his sheep. 

St. Augustine^ de Unitate EcdesicBj C. 1, saith : The 
Church is certainly one which our forefathers called 
Catholic, which name denotes universality. This Church 
is the body of Christ, as the Apostle saith. Col. i. 18. : 
He is the head of the body, the Church. From which it is 
manifest that he who is not among the members of Christ 
cannot have Christian salvation. The members of Christ 
are connected together by the charity of unity, and by 
the same do they adhere to their head, which is Christ 
Jesus. The head is Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son 
of God, the Saviour of his body : Who ivas delivered up 
for our sins and rose again for our justification. Rom. iv. 25 : 
His body is the Church, of which it is said, Ephes. v. 2t: 
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, 
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. 

Cajp. 2. — Christ whole is head and body. The head 
is the only-begotten Son of God, and the body is the 



brownson's quarterly review. 343 

church, bridegroom, and bride, two in one flesh. Who- 
soever dissent from the holy Scriptures in regard to the 
head, even if they exist in all places in which the church 
is extant, they are not in the church. And again, who- 
soever assent to the holy Scriptures concerning the same 
head, but communicate not with the unity of the church, 
they are not in the church ; because they dissent from the 
testimony of Christ himself with respect to his body, which 
is the church ; for example, whosoever believe not that 
Christ came in the flesh of the Virgin Mary, of the seed 
of David, as the Word of God evidently saith, or that he 
rose not again in the same body in which he was cruci- 
fied and buried, even if they be found in all countries in 
which the Church is, certainly they are not in the Church, 
because they hold not the head which is Christ. In like 
manner, whosoever firmly believe that Christ Jesus, as 
already observed, came in the flesh, suffered, and rose 
again in the same flesh in which he was born, and that 
he is the Son of God, one God with God, and one with 
the Father, and the immutable Word of the Father, by 
whom are all things made, and dissent so from his body 
the Church, that they communicate not with, the whole 
wherever it is spread, but are separated in some locality, 
it is evident that they are not in the Catholic church. 

Remember that the Church is the body of Christ, and 
that Christ is the head of his body the Church: that Christ 
whole is head and body; that the head is the only-begot- 
ten Son of God, and that his body is the Church, bride- 
groom and bride, two in one flesh. Whosoever assails 
the infallibility of the Church attacks the infallibility of 
her head, Christ Jesus. The blasphemous assertion of 
Brownson — *^ that the Church hath altered her action, and 
conformed to the ages through which she passes," recoils 
upon the head Christ Jesus, who hath promised that he 



344 TEN HERESIES OF 

will build her upon a rock — that he is with her all days, 
even till the end of the world, and that the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against her. Certainly Brownson, after 
having made such blasphemous charge upon the Church 
and upon Christ himself, can set up no pretensions to 
Christianity. The universality and perpetuity of the 
Church of Christ hath been, several hundred years prior 
to the event, foretold by the holy prophets. 

Gen. xxii. 16. By my ownself have I sworn, saith 
the Lord ; because thou hast done this thing, and hast 
not spared thy only begotten Son for my sake, I will 
bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of 
heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea-shore ; thy 
seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in 
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, be- 
cause thou hast obeyed my voice. It is also foretold that 
the Gentiles, who were previously barren, shall multiply 
in the Church of Christ, and that God^s mercy will never 
more desert them. 

Isai. liv. : Give praise, thou barren, that bearest 
not : sing forth praise, and make joyful noise. Enlarge 
the place of thy tent, and stretch out the skin of thy 
tabernacles; spare not : lengthen thy cords and strengthen 
thy stakes : for thou shalt pass unto the right hand and 
to the left : and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and 
shall inhabit the desolate cities. Fear not, for thou shalt 
not be confounded, nor blush : for thou shalt not be put 
to shame, because thou shalt forget the shame of thy 
youth, and shalt remember no more the reproach of thy 
widowhood. For he that made thee shall rule over thee, 
the Lord of hosts is his name. Verse 8 : In a moment of 
indignation have I hid my face a little while from thee, 
but with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on thee, 
said the Lord thy Redeemer. For the mountains shall be 



brownson's quarterly review. 845 

moved and the hills shall tremble, but my mercy shall not 
depart from thee, and the covenant of my peace shall not 
be moved, said the Lord that hath mercy on thee. All 
thy children shall be taught of the Lord. 

How sweetly is the holy prophesy 'fulfilled in these 
days I The Gentiles that were barren, whose works had 
no spiritual fruit, come to us with joyful noise and 
praises of God; they leave father and mother, brothers 
and sisters, house and home, and seek refuge in the bosom 
of the Church. The Holy Catholic Church passes on to 
the right hand and to the left, to the very ends of the 
earth ; her children multiply as the stars in the heavens 
or the sand on the beach. She has to make the churches 
larger and their walls stronger. Our merciful Father, 
who chastiseth the child whom he loveth, saith : ** A lit- 
tle while have I hid my face from thee, but with everlast- 
ing kindness have I had mercy on thee." 

In every grove are decayed branches ; so in the church 
are scandals and heresies, luxury, riots, covetousness ; 
but this is no proof that she hath altered her doctrine, or 
conformed to the world. She weeps and mourns ; she 
preaches the Word ; she is instant in season and out of 
season ; she reproaches, entreats, rebukes in all patience 
and doctrine. If she bring them to repent and do works 
of penance, they become living members of the body of 
Christ, and cause joy to the angels in heaven ; but if they 
persist in the works of the flesh, and glory in their own 
shame, she cuts them off, lest the disease spread among 
the many ; they are then as heathens and publicans. 
May God forbid that the pastor would slumber or sleep 
through fear, despair, or respect of persons, when the 
malady spreads. The captain who sees the leak, and 
takes no steps to check the influx, hath much to answer 
for ; himself, and the crew, and the passengers will go 
down together. The blind leading the blind fall into the pit. 



346 TEN HERESIES OF 

Near the end of the world the sinners grow numerous 
and rampant, that they bid defiance to God himself and to 
the Church ; many false prophets have arisen and seduced 
many ; iniquity hath abounded and the charity of many 
hath grown cold. The faithful should not despair or de- 
spond, if they persevere to the end: as the wheat is mixed 
with the cockle until harvest, when they are separated 
by the angels of God, so have the just to wait in fear and 
trembling among the sinners until they are separated by 
the angels, the messengers of God; lest in their abhorrence 
for the public depravity they hurl themselves out of the 
ark of Christ. 

If there be sinners and scandalous persons, so there 
are shining lights in the Church. Behold the religious 
men and women who leave the world and follow Christ, 
who choose the best part, which shall not be taken away 
from them. In their saintly retreat they spend the time 
in contemplating on the vanity of this life, and the glory 
of the heavenly citizens, and doing good works : they 
open schools for the poor, nurse the sick, bury the dead, 
and work with their own hands the things that are good; 
that they may have means to relieve the indigent. Such 
apostolical fervor for the honor and glory of God, the 
spiritual and temporal welfare of their fellow-men, that 
rapidly spreads, even in our days, shows that the hand 
of God is not shortened and his promised aid is not with- 
drawn from his Church. Hence, thousands come from 
the east and west, from 'the north and south into the 
Church : in which they shall be inebriated with the plenty 
of God's house, and shall be made to drink of the torrent 
of his pleasure : for with him is the fountain of life, and 
in his light they shall see light. 

But at this critical moment, the old serpent, as if en- 
vious of their felicity, and alarmed for the inroad that is 
being made upon his meeting-houses, transforms himself 



brownson's quarterly review. 34T 

into an ang'el of light, and suborns his ministers as min- 
isters of justice ; he instigates Brownson to proclaim in 
his Review, that the Catholic Church is no more, that she 
has altered her principles, and assimilated to the ages 
through which she passes ; that she is not, in fact, the 
Church of God, but a creature of the world. And, shock- 
ing to relate, he sets aside not alone the Church, but the 
law of God, and substitutes what he calls the law of 
nature. 

NINTH HERESY— ON THE LAW OF NATURE. 

'^ The Church," he said, ^^ was not instituted to be a 
Government, in the sense of a temporal or political Govern- 
ment. Her kingdom was not of this world. Her mission 
was not that of a civilizer, but that of establishing the 
kingdom of God upon earth, and taking charge of all that 
pertains to the soul or the eternal salvation of man. She 
was in the supernatural order, and in all that pertain to 
that order she was perfect, and had entire authority, and 
every Catholic bowed and must bow in hujnble and de- 
vout submission to her words. But while she educated the 
people and trained them for heaven, she did not necessarily 
educate statesmen or train them for the performance of 
their duties, or the administration of government, any more 
than she trained men to make hats, coats, boots, or shoes. 
This was not her work. She left natural society to its own 
imperfections, and left man to struggle there with his 
natural powers, and with the strength which Almighty 
God gave him. On this principle, while the Church pro- 
claims the law of nature, and applies it in all matters 
which come within her purview, her work and her sphere 
lie in the supernatural order. She does not create the 
political order which prevails at any time. She never 
has done it. She came into the Roman world and she 



348 TEN HEKESIES OF 

commenced her divine work upon the Roman order of 
civilization, with the constitution of the political and 
social powers as she found them." — O, A. BrownsorCs Lec- 
ture in Cooper Institute, New- York, March 8, 1859. Pub- 
lished in the Boston Pilot on the 19th of the same month. 

Deplorable is our condition, when a man calling him- 
self a Catholic, pours forth such falsehood and blasphemy 
in a public hall before any audience of Christians. 

On the contrary. The mission of the church was that 
of a civilizer, to establish the kingdom of God upon earth. 
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ; 
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven. Her mission was to teach the law and will of 
God, to bring all persons into the unity of faith and know- 
ledge of the Son of God. Matt, xxviii. : Going, teach ye 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to ob- 
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and 
behold I am with you all days, even until the end of the 
world. Luke; xxiv. : Thus it is written, and thus it 
behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the 
dead the third day ; and that penance and remission of 
sins would be preached in his name unto all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem. Matt. xix. 17 : If thou wilt enter 
into life, keep the commandments. He said to him : 
Which ? And Jesus said : Thou shalt do no murder ; 
Thou shalt not commit adultery ; Thou shalt not steal ; 
Thou shalt not bear false witness ; Honor thy father and 
thy mother, and Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 

That the Apostles promptly complied with the injunc- 
tion of Christ Jesus is attested by the Apostle, Rom. 
X. 10 : Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, 
and their words unto the ends of the whole world ; the 
fact is also confirmed by the six general persecutions 



brownson's quarterly review. 349 

.hat were enkindled against them by the Roman empe- 
rors, in which they suffered all sorts of tortures — fire, racks, 
>easts, prisons — which they might have escaped merely 
by denying Christ crucified, bowing to the idols, or by 
confessing the law of nature. That the Church hath, in 
all ages, also proclaimed the doctrine of Christ, is mani- 
fest from the homilies of the holy Fathers, both Greek and 
Latin, which are extant in all parts of Christendom; from 
the definitions and decrees of the Sacred Councils, com- 
piled in the Body of the Canon Law and Decretal Epis- 
tles of the Popes ; from Ecclesiastical History; from the 
obligation upon all pastors to have expounded every Sun- 
day and Holiday a portion of Holy Writ to his flock ; and 
lastly, from the Catechism of the Council of Trent, trans- 
lated by Rev. J. Donovan. And, I may add, from the 
Apology that was made for the primitive Christians in 
the second century, by Justin, martyr and philosopher, 
to the Roman Emperor and Roman Senate. That Apol- 
ogy is so truthful and heavenly, and so much to our pre- 
sent purpose, that I quote with delight an extract, regret- 
ting, meantime, that the limits of my work would not per- 
mit the insertion of the whole. 

B, Justin M, and P. Pro Ckristianis Apologia 11, A. D. 
150, saith: — Being convinced by the Reason and the Word, 
we have separated from them, (heathens,) and we follow 
the only and unbegotten God through his very Son; and we 
who formerly practised lewdness, now embrace chastity; 
we who were addicted to the magical arts, devote and 
dedicate ourselves to the good and eternal God ; we who 
highly prized the fruits and incomes of monies and lands, 
now throw our possessions into a common stock and di- 
vide them among all persons in distress ; we, who used 
to indulge in mutual hatred and quarrels, and would not 
cohabit with any persons not of our own sect, now livo 

16 



S50 TEN HERESIES OF 

under the tuition of Christ familiarly together ; we pray 
for our enemies, and strive by sweet conversation to gain 
those who unjustly hate us, that conforming to the spot- 
less precepts of Christ, they may be inspired with hope 
of obtaining from God, the giver of all good things, the 
same rewards with us. And lest we appear to act so 
without foundation^ we give the proof from the doctrine 
of Christ himself. And it is your duty, as mighty empe- 
rors and princes, to see whether our teachings and prac- 
tices accord with sound morals and equity. Our Master's 
discourses are concise and clear- he was not a sophist nor 
disputer ; but he was the power of God, his Reason and 
Word. Wherefore, he hath said of chastity. Whosoever 
shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already com- 
mitted adultery with her in his heart ; and^ if thy right 
eye scandalize thee, pluck it out : for it is expedient for 
thee to enter blind of one eye into the kingdom of heaven, 
than to be sent, having two eyes, into eternal fire ; and, 
whosoever marry her that is put away by another man, 
committeth adultery; and, there are eunuchs who were 
born so from their wombs ; and there are eunuchs, who 
have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of hea- 
ven ; but all men take not this word. 

And as in the eye of the human laws, people contracting 
a double marriage are culpable, so also, according to our 
teacher, are persons looking at a woman to lust after her, 
sinners ; for not alone is the man who really commits 
adultery rejected by him, but also the man willing to 
commit adultery ; because not only the deeds but the 
thoughts likewise are manifest to God. Really, great 
many of both sexes, from sixty to seventy years old, are 
among us who, having learned the discipline of Christ 
from their youth, preserve their purity and celibacy. And 
I glory to be able to show such persons in every rank of 
our people. And why should I allude to the countless 



brownson's quarterly review. 351 

multitude who are converted from unbridled luxury to a 
virtuous life, and have learned our institutes ? For Christ 
hath called not the just and the chaste to penance, but 
the impious, and the incontinent, and the unjust : for he 
speaks thus : I came not to call the just but the sinners 
to repentance. For the heavenly Father prefers penance 
before punishment. He hath inculcated this doctrine 
about loving all men : If you love them that love you, 
what thanks are to you ? for fornicators do the same thing : 
but I say unto you, pray for your enemies, and love them 
that hate and persecute you. And in regard to the distri- 
bution of property to the needy, and that nothing should be 
done through vain glory, he giveth the precepts : Give 
to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would bor- 
row of thee, turn not away : for if you give to them of 
whom you hope to receive, what thanks are to you ? the 
publicans also do this. You shall not lay up for yourselves 
treasures upon earth, where the moth and the rust con- 
sume, and the thieves break through, but lay up for your- 
selves treasures in heaven, where neither the moth nor 
the rust consumes. What shall it profit a man, if he gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul ? or what will he 
give in exchange for it ? Gather up, therefore, treasures 
in heaven, where neither the rust nor the moth consumes. 
And be ye therefore accommodating and merciful, as 
your Father is accommodating and merciful, who maketh 
his sun to rise upon the good and bad and sinners. 
Be not solicitous for what you eat, nor for what you shall 
wear. Are you not better than the birds and the beasts ? 
God feeds them also. Be not therefore solicitous for 
what you eat, nor for what you put on, for your heavenly 
Father knoweth that you need all these things. Seek 
first the kingdom of heaven, and all things shall be given 
to you. Where your treasure is, there also let your heart 
be ; and do not these things, that you may be seen 



352 TEN HEKESIES OF 

by men, otherwise you will have no reward from your 
Father who is in heaven. Further, that we bear wrongs 
patiently ; practice humility, and overcome anger with 
meekness, he teacheth this doctrine : To a man striking 
you on one cheek, turn the other. If a man take your 
cloak, let him take your coat also. Whosoever burns 
with anger, shall be condemned to fire. If a man force 
you to go with him one mile, go with him two. Let your 
works so shine before men, that they, seeing them, may 
glorify your Father who is in heaven. 

God wills that we neither oppose nor imitate wicked 
men, but he exhorts that they be converted from their 
evil deeds and ways by patience and mildness. This we 
are able to prove in several of your people who were 
furious and truculent, but after having spent some time 
among us, became by a change of life totally other men ; 
by imitating the regular life of the neighbors or asso- 
ciates in holding all earthly things as on the way ; and 
by perceiving the extraordinary patience of our people in 
bearing injuries, and by trying their honesty in dealings. 
And that we swear not at all, and that we speak at all 
times the truth, he thus commandeth : Swear not at all, 
but let your speech be : Yea, yea; IS'o, no : what is added 
to these comes from evil. That God alone is to be wor- 
shiped he taught thus, saying : This is the greatest 
commandment : The Lord thy God thou shalt adore and 
him alone thou shalt worship with all thy heart, and with 
all thy power : the Lord who hath made thee. And as 
a certain man came to him and said : Good Master, he 
answ^ered, saying : None is good but God alone, who 
hath made all things. Whosoever live not according to the 
doctrine which he hath inculcated, though they profess 
that doctrine on the tongue, are not, there is no doubt, 
Christians. Not the professors alone^ hut those who prove, 
meantime^ the prof ession by works, shall be saved. 



brownson's quarterly review. 353 

For thus he saith : Not every person who saith to me: 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but 
he who doth the will of my Father, who is in heaven. 
For he who hears me and doth the things that I say, 
hears him who hath sent me. A great many shall say to 
me : Lord, Lord, do we not in thy name eat and drink, 
and perform miracles ? And then I shall say to them : 
Depart from me, you who work iniquity. Then there will 
be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when the just shall 
shine as the sun, but the unjust shall be sent into ever- 
lasting fire. Many will come indeed in my name, being 
outwardly dressed with the skins of sheep, whilst they are 
inwardly ravening wolves. From their works you shall 
know them. Every tree bearing not good fruit is cut out 
and thrown into the fire. But we beseech, that those who 
spend not a life according to his precepts, and who are 
only called Christians, be punished also by you. We 
everywhere surpass all people in paying taxes and as- 
sessments to those who are appointed collectors by you, 
as we have been taught by him. For at that time, some 
persons coming asked him : Is it proper to pay tribute 
to Caesar ? Who received this answer from him : Tell me 
whose image that coin bears ? When they answered, 
Caesar's. He saith : Give ye therefore to Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are 
God's. 

Wherefore, we adore God alone, and joyfully serve 
you in all other things, acknowledging that you are the 
rulers and emperors over men, and praying, meantime, 
that you may enjoy, with sound mind, your imperial dig- 
nity. But if you do not shield and protect us, who thus 
pray for you, and contribute our whole property towards 
the public weal, we believe and are rather certain that 
our good works will not be lost ; that each person sliall, 
according to his merits or sins, receive eternal reward or 



354 TEN HERESIES OP 

eternal punishment in everlasting fire ; that he must 
render an account in proportion to the degree of power 
which he hath received from God : as Christ indicates, 
saying : To whom God hath given much^ of him much shall he 
demand. Look at the end of each of your imperial pre- 
decessors, who have met the common death of all men. 

The above extract is from a Greek edition of the works 
of St. Justin, in folio, Colonise 1686. Eusebius, Eccl. 
Hist. Lib. iv., ch. 13, saith, that the Apology had the efiect 
of gaining peace for the church; that the pagan Emperor, 
Antoninus Pius, had issued positive orders to all the gov- 
ernors of the provinces to molest the Christians no longer. 

Will Brownson, after having seen Justin's apology, 
say that the Church is not a civilizer ; that she leaves 
statesmen to legislate and govern at will; that she leaves 
natural society to its own imperfections ; and leaves indi- 
viduals to struggle in society with their own natural 
powers ; or that the Church proclaims the law of nature ? 
Accursed Brownson must be either supinely ignorant of 
ecclesiastical history and of the Catholic teaching and 
practice, or a ruthless infidel sent by the devil to demolish 
the whole Christian religion. 

Brownson saith : " She (Church) was in the superna- 
tural order, and in all that pertain to that order she was 
perfect and had entire authority, and every Catholic 
bowed and must bow in humble and devout submission 
to her words ; but while she educated the people and 
trained them for heaven, she did not necessarily educate 
statesmen or train them for the performance of their duties 
on the administration of government, any more than she 
trained men to make hats, coats, boots, or shoes. This 
was not her work. She left natural society to its own 
imperfections, and she left man to struggle there with 



beownson's quarterly review. 355 

his natural powers. While the church proclaims the law 
of nature, and applies it in all matters which come within 
purview, her work lies in the supernatural order." 

It is reported that there is in these days a propensity 
among many to set aside the law of God and of the Church, 
for the laws of nature and of their passions. Keen-eyed 
Brownson, perceiving that propensity, goes to make the 
most of it, to convert it to his own pecuniary advantage ; 
accordingly he pours out a lecture in Cooper Institute 
which is the most likely to tickle the fancy and open the 
purse of his whole audience. He tells the statesmen that 
the Church never interferes with their education, and that 
they, of course, are at full liberty to legislate as they 
please; he tells individuals that the Church never med- 
dles with them, and that they may struggle in the world 
with their own natural powers; and he tells society at 
large that it hatli nothing to hope, nothing to fear from 
the Church, and that they are left to their own imperfec- 
tions, to think and act as their natural instincts direct. 

We have seen in the premises that he has wheeled to 
every point of the compass, and been carried about with 
every wind of doctrine ; that he roamed among the mani- 
fold sects in Massachusetts, becoming in rapid succession 
a Socinian, Arian, Valentinian, Manichean, and a nominal 
Catholic ; but now he discards all revealed religion, 
adopts the law of nature, and turns out a deist, though 
he does not say what the natural law is, or in what 
volume it is found. But it may be asked, what thing is a 
deist ? I give the description of him from BelVs Diction- 
ary of Religions, 

*^A Deist is a man that believes the existence of God 
rejects all revelation, and that pretends to believe in na- 
tural religion." Then he sends overboard both Testaments, 



356 TEN HERESIES OF 

the labors of the Apostles, the Church, and the Hierarchy. 
He is therefore on a level with the heathens and the un- 
tutored Indians, who believe what they please and pay 
homage their own way to a Supreme Being. But sup- 
pose a poor wretch abandoned from his birth by his un- 
natural parents, and doomed to herd with the brutes of 
the forest, will Brownson inform us what religion will a 
creature thus brutalized adopt ? Most probably his re- 
ligious ideas, if he have any at all, will not far exceed 
that of his associates, the wild beasts. If there be upon 
earth a religion which may be properly called natural, 
why did not the ancient philosophers, Plato, Socrates, 
Epicure, and Cicero agree among themselves, or with the 
modern Deists, in regard to its import ? This chimerical 
religion consists, as they say, in adoring God and living a 
life of honor and integrity. But how are they to adore 
God? Merely by an interior worship, or by sensible 
signs ? by the Jewish sacrifices, or those of the heathens 
according to the caprice of individuals or agreeably to a 
stated form ? All this maybe a matter of indiflFerence in 
the eyes of Brownson and every other Deist. 

In their supposition, all the absurdities, all the crimes 
perpetuated through a motive of religion by ancient or 
modern infidels, by Mormons, Free-Lovers, Free-Think- 
ers, thieves, church-burners, constitute the natural reli- 
gion of the Deists. Moreover, all are reputed men of 
honor and integrity with the Deists that observe the laws 
of their country, however unjust and unnatural these may 
be. The Chinese, for instance, sells, exposes, and even 
murders his children ; the Arabian robs and massacres 
the strangers ; the Algerine pirates rob on the high seas. 
If all this accords with the honor and integrity of Deists, 
the world hath good reason to tremble. Deism, there- 
fore, may be fairly defined : The doctrine of those who 
admit the existence of a God, without explaining their 



brownson's quarterly review. 357 

notions of the divinity; a worship, without determining its 
form ; a natural law, without any knowledge of its pre- 
cepts ; and who reject revelation without so much as 
investigating the proofs of its existence. In a word, it is 
a system of irreligion without the semblance of convic- 
tion ; the unhallowed privilege of believing and acting as 
they please. If it be pretended that the system is backed 
by arguments, this is mere delusion; they consist of so- 
phistry and silly objections against revelation, which are 
as shallow and inconclusive as its doctrine is destitute of 
reason and truth. 

The Deists acknowledge Protestants to be their primo- 
genitors, but think them timid reasoners, in not daring to 
advance, when there was no obstacle to impede their 
progress on their way to truth. The first Deists appeared, 
in fact, immediately after the Socinians, and were previ- 
ously Protestants. In England they began to show them- 
selves under the protectorate of Cromwell, in the midst 
of the contests between High-churchmen, the Puritans, 
and Independents. Their irreligious system passed thence 
into Holland and France, where it quickly generated 
atheism. For it is a well-known fact, that all the fashion- 
able infidels in those countries, after having preached 
Deism for fifty years, ultimately professed atheism in all 
their succeeding publications.'' 

Had Brownson noticed what the holy Apostles sufiered 
in carrying the gospel to the ends of the world; how they 
were dragged before judges and tribunals, hunted by 
Jews and Gentiles, mocked by Scribes and Pharisees ; 
mangled upon racks and hurdles, roasted upon slow fires, 
torn into pieces by lions and tigers, because they preached 
Christ crucified : had he seen the Orations of the early 
Fathers, Ignatius, Justin, Polycarp, Cyrill, Athanasius, 
Basil, Tertullian, and the rest, against the heathen Greeks 

16* 



358 TEN HERESIES OF 

and the immorality of their idolatrous worship, and 
against the empty sophistry of the pagan philosophers, 
Orpheus, Aristotle, Epicure, Socrates, and so forth ; or 
had he read the triumphant conflicts in after ages held 
by SS. Jerome, Cyprian, Augustin, Leo, Ambrose, Irenaeus, 
Epiphanius, with the heretics and schismatics, he would 
not have the madness to write that the Church is not a 
civilizer, or that she leaves all persons to their natural 
powers and to follow their own ways. 

As his allusion to the original introduction of Christ- 
ianity into the Roman Empire may lead the light reader 
to the belief that he is something, I shall show from the 
Supreme Pontiff that his assertion hath no foundation 
whatever. 

Papa Leo 1. Sermo 1, in Nat ale A'postolorum Petri et 
Pauli^ A. D. 440, saith : That the ineffable blessing of 
the Christian religion be diffused through the whole 
world, divine Providence hath prepared the Roman Em- 
pire. It was God^s will that many kingdoms would be 
confederated under one government, that the general 
doctrine might easily reach the people who were under 
the rule of one city. This city, ignorant of the author of 
her exaltation, was, whilst she ruled almost all nations, a 
slave to the errors of all nations. She deemed herself 
very religious, because she rejected no falsehood. Hence 
the faster she was held in the chains of the devil, the 
more miraculously she is delivered by Christ. For the 
two Apostles, after they were endowed with the gift of 
tongues by the Holy Ghost, received the world as a field 
for preaching the gospel ; and after they divided among 
themselves the different nations of the earth, the most 
blessed Peter, prince of the Apostolical order, is destined 
for the capital of the Roman Empire ; that the light 
which was revealed for the salvation of men might more 



brownson's quarterly review. 359 

readily spread itself from the head through the entire 
body of the universe. Where is that nation from which 
people were not then in this city ? Here were the the- 
ories of the philosophers to be shattered ; here were the 
phantoms of the worldly wisdom to be blown up ; here 
were the sacrifices of the demons to be exposed ; here 
was the impiety of sacrilege to be overthrown ; where 
there was collected together with fanatical superstition 
whatever of error or falsehood had appeared in any part 
of the world. 

Towards this city, wherefore thou, Peter, most holy 
Apostle, wert not afraid to come, the Apostle Paul, thy 
co-laborer also being yet engaged in organizing other 
churches : thou hast entered with more firmness into the 
forest of roaring beasts, this ocean of troubled depth, than 
when thou didst walk upon the heaving sea ; thou who 
didst tremble in Caiphas' house before a servant-maid, 
art not afraid of the Roman mistress of the world. Was 
there less terror in the judgment of Pilate, or in the cruelty 
of the Jews ; or less power in Claudius, or less barbarity 
in Nero? The ardor of thy charity subdued thy fear. 
Thou didst not yield to fear when thou didst consider the 
salvation of those whom thou didst undertake to feed. 
The foundation of this intrepid charity thou hast then 
especially laid, when thy profession of the love of God 
was confirmed by the rftysterious threefold interrogation. 
There was no more then required from thy firm resolution, 
than that thou wouldst share that bread with which thou 
hast been richly nourished, in feeding the flock of him 
whom thou didst love. 

The innumerable miracles, the manifold graces and gifts 
which thou hast experienced, gave thee additional confi- 
dence. Thou hast ere now educated the Jewish Proselytes • 
thou hast founded the Antiochian Church, where the digni- 
ty of the Christian name first took its rise ; thou hast filled 



360 TEN HERESIES OF 

with the laws of the gospel preaching Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, being neither doubtful 
of the success of thy work, nor ignorant of the term of 
thy life. Thou hast planted in the Roman citadels the 
trophy of the cross of Christ, whither, by the decrees of 
heaven, the renown of thy dignity and the glory of thy 
passion went before thee. 

Remark, that as soon as Peter hoisted the cross in 
Rome, and promulgated a doctrine that was repugnant 
to flesh and blood, preached Christ crucified, the idols 
fell into contempt ; the sybills lost the power of divina- 
tion ; the seers are confounded ; the philosophers are 
puzzled ; the pagan emperors are alarmed. The old ser- 
pent, the implacable enemy of man, becoming jealous for 
the inroad that is being made on his temples and infernal 
regions, enkindles a general persecution against Christ 
and his disciples. The Christians are hunted, dispersed, 
and exposed to all sorts of tortures, and even the apos- 
tles Peter and Paul are thrown into the dungeon and 
soon after crowned with martyrdom. And why have the 
Gentiles raged and the people devised vain things ? the 
kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together 
against the Lord and against his Christ ? Let us break 
their bands asunder, and let us cast away their yoke from 
us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them ; 
and the Lord shall deride them. 

Xotwithstanding, Brownson saith, " that the mission 
of the Church was not that of a civilizer ; that she does 
not educate statesmen for the performance of their duties, 
and that she leaves natural society to its own imperfec- 
tions, and man to struggle with his natural powers ;" 
that she leaves, in short, all classes to think and act as 
they please. That she came into the Roman world, and 
commenced her divine work upon the Roman order of 



brownson's quarterly review. 3C1 

civilization. Behold the rhapsody of a mad infidel, who 
shuts his eyes against the lessons of history, and against 
facts that are well known to all men; whose only aim and 
object is, as if the devil hath entered into him, to restore 
paganism and the law of nature on the ruins of the Christ- 
ian religion. Hearken to the Apostle, Ephes. ii. 1 : When 
men are dead in their ofiences and sins, they walk accord- 
ing to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit 
that now worketh on the children of unbelief ; in which 
also we were by nature children of wrath ; but God, for 
his exceeding charity, hath quickened us together in Christ. 
And again, Rom. ii. 12 : Whosoever hath sinned without 
the law, shall perish without the law. Remember, that 
whilst the children of unbelief would bring us back to the 
law of nature, the holy Apostle teaches that we are by 
nature children of wrath, in which wrath we would con- 
tinue, had not God, in his infinite mercy and love for us, 
sent his only Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 
to redeem and save us. The Apostle moreover teacheth, 
that they who are without the law of God shall be judged 
without the law. 

TENTH HERESY. 
He denies the Lordship of Christ. 

Saying : '^ The Kingdom of the Church was not of this 
world." By denying the kingdom or authority of the 
Church over worldly matters, he denies the lordship or 
dominion of Christ, the Omnipotent God, over temporal 
affairs. By asserting that the Church interferes not with 
the education of statesmen, and that she leaves natural 
society to its own imperfections ; that she leaves, in short, 
all classes full liberty to follow their own natural impulses, 
he extends his blasphemy to Christ himself: for the 
Church is the body of Christy and Christ is the head of his 



362 TEN HERESIES OF 

hody, iU Church. Col. i. 18 : '' Christ whole is head and 
body. The only-begotten Son of God is the head, and 
the Church is the body, bridegroom and bride, two in one 
flesh." B. Augustin, de Unitate EccIesuE. The authority 
of the Church over temporal matters is heretofore proved, 
page 230, and now I am going to demonstrate from the 
Testaments and tradition, — 

2'hat Christ Jesus is Lord and Owner of all things^ loth 
spiritual and temjporal. 

Psal. ii. 6. — But I am appointed King by him over all 
Sion, his holy mountain, preaching his commandment. 
The Lord hath saith to me : Thou art my Son, this day 
have I begotten thee. 

Matt, xxviii. 18. — All power is given to me in heaven 
and on earth. 

Luke, X. 22. — All things are delivered to me by my 
Father. 

John, i. 3. — All things were made by him ; and with- 
out him was made nothing that was made. The world was 
made by him and the world knew him not. He came into 
his own (property,) and his own (people) received him 
not — In propria venit et sui eum non receperunt. 

Coloss. ii. 10. — Beware lest any man cheat you by 
philosophy and vain deceit ; according to the tradition of 
men and not according to Christ : for in him dwelleth all 
the fullness of the Godhead corporally — who is the head of 
all principality and power. 

1 Tim. vi. 15. — Keep the commandment without spot, 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, ... 
who is the blessed and the only Mighty ; the King of kings 
and Lord of lords. 

Apoc. xvii. 14. — These shall fight with the Lamb, and 
the Lamb shall overcome them, because he is Lord of 
lords and King of kings. 



brownson's quarterly review. 363 

Apoc. xix. 16. — And he hath on his garment and on 
his thigh written : King of kings and Lord of lords. 

Symholorum Ajpostolorum. — I believe in Jesus Christ, his 
only Son, our Lord. 

Whereas, it is thus declared of Christ Jesus : that all 
power in heaven and on earth is given unto him ; that all 
things are delivered unto him ; that all things were made 
by him, and without him nothing that was made ; that he 
came into the world, which was his own property, although 
his own people received him not ; that in him dwelleth 
the fullness of the Divinity ; that he is the head of all 
principality and power ; and that he is th^ King of kings 
and Lord of lords ; his lordship or dominion over all 
things both temporal and spiritual is made manifest in 
Holy Writ. Now let us see how it is defined by the Holy 
Fathers, Popes, and Sacred Councils. 

Con Niccenum, J.. D. 325. In Symholo. — I believe in 
one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God. 
Consubstantial with the Father ; by whom were all things 
made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, descended 
from heaven. And he was incarnated by the Holy Ghost 
of the Virgin Mary : and he was made man. 

AthanasiuSj A. D. 340. In Symholo. — The Father is al- 
mighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty; 
yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty. 

Also, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the 
Holy Ghost is Lord. 

Therefore this is the right faith, that we believe and 
confess that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is 
God and man, perfect God and perfect man, of a rational 
soul and human flesh subsisting. For, as the rational 
soul and the flesh is one man ; so God and man is one 
Christ. 



364 TEN HERESIES OF 

Faustinus, A. D. ^SO^ Lihro de fide contra Ariuvi, Cap. 3. 
That the Son of God is omnipotent and unchangeable, 
and that the omnipotence of the Father and of the Son 
is one. 

Let us also shatter another of their blasphemies, by 
which they say that the Son is not omnipotent, by whom, 
as they themselves also confess, all things were made. 
Let him, in order to prove that the Son is not omnipotent, 
show one work of the Father which the Son has not also 
made. Or, since there is no Avork extant which is not 
the production of the Father and of the Son; the Son is, 
without doubt, also omnipotent, doing whatever things 
the omnipotent Father doeth. 

Ruffinus, A. D, 390. In exjplicatione Symholi. — ^^ Hence 
the following sermon also pronounces the Lord omnipotent. 
But omnipotence is said, from the fact that he holds the 
dominion of all things. And the Father holds all things 
through the Son, as the Apostle also saith, Coloss. i. 16, 
All things were created by him and in him. But if by him 
the Father hath ordained the ages, and by him were 
made all things, he is also heir of all things, and he holds 
therefore, through him the dominion of all things. Be- 
cause, as the light is from light, and the truth is from the 
truth, so the omnipotent is born from the omnipotent. 
Hence, it is written in the Apocalypse of John, iv. 8, of 
the Seraphim : And they rested not day and night, say- 
ing, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was 
and who is, and who is to come. Consequently, he who 
is to come is called almighty. And what other person is 
to come but Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Whereas all 
people, especially the learned, like to drink at the fountain- 
head ; to go back to the early ages, and see with their 
own eyes the doctrine that came down through the holy 
Apostles from Christ Jesus, in regard to the Unity and 



brownson's quarterly review. 365 

Trinity of God, and the omnipotence and Lordship of God 
made man, over all things, visible and invisible, I would 
earnestly recommend that they consult the Justinian 
Code, CodiciSj lib. 1, tit. 1. The edicts there recorded show- 
that the same Catholic doctrine which we hold, was held 
and confessed in the year 380, through the length and 
breadth of the Roman empire ; that it was at that early 
period the religion of the mighty emperors, Gratian, Val- 
entinian, Theodosius, Justinian and Constantine. Said 
edicts are reluctantly omitted here by reason of the nar- 
row limits of my epitome. 

Vincent Lireninsis^ A. D. 430. Comm. Cap. 21. — '^We 
must confess that in Christ Jesus man is united to God 
in the unity of person, for which reason the properties of 
God are individually and generally attributed to man, 
and the attributes of the flesh are ascribed to God : It 
being written, John, iii. 13 : T'he Son of man descended from 
heaven. And again, 1 Cor. ii. 2 : The Lord of majesty was 
crucified ujpon earth. 

Cap. 22. — ''Blessed be the holy Catholic Church, that 
holds that there are in Christ two true and perfect sub- 
stances, and one only person ; and that by reason of the 
unity of persons in the divine and ineffable mystery, the 
properties of God can be attributed to man, and the prop- 
erties of man can be applied to God." 

Leo Magnus, A. D. 450. Ejpist. decimaad Flavianum. — 
'' The properties of each nature are preserved and united 
in the person of Christ : weakness is assumed by omnipo- 
tence, lowness by greatness, mortality by eternity. He 
assumed the form of a servant without the stain of sin, 
exalting human nature, not lessening the divine : for that 
emptying in which the invisible God, and the Creator and 
Lord of all, condescended to become one of mortals, had 
been a display of mercy, not a defect of power. There- 



366 TEN HERESIES OF 

fore, he, continuing in the form of God, had created man, 
and he also in the form of a servant was made man. And 
each form retains, without diminution, its peculiar prop- 
erties/^ 

Gregorius Magmis, A, D. 590, De Pastorali Cura^ Pars, 
1. Cap. 3. — '' Jcunes, iii. 1: Be not many master s, my hrethren. 
The Mediator of God and men, who surpasses in wisdom 
and knowledge even the celestial spirits, and who reigns 
in heaven before all ages, has forbidden mankind to ac- 
cept of sovereignty upon earth : for it is written, John, 
vi. 15, that when Jesus knew that they would come and 
forcibly take him, and make him king, he fled again to 
the mountain alone. Who could with more justice rule 
over mankind, than he over the people whom he had cre- 
ated ? But as he became man, both to redeem us by his 
passion and to instruct us by his conversation, he would 
not, to the purpose of edifying his followers by an ex- 
ample, be made a king ^ whilst he voluntarily came to 
the altar of the cross, he fled from the proffered dignity ; 
he sought the ignominious death, to teach his members 
to flee the smiles of this world, and to tremble not at per- 
secution for justice sake, but to shudder at prosperity : 
for the one vitiates the heart with pride, and the other 
wipes ofl* the dross ; in prosperity, man forgets himself ; 
in adversity, he is brought, willing or unwilling, to a 
knowledge of himself." 

Horn. X. de JEpipkania on Matt. ii. 11. — '^The wise men 
entering into the house found the child with Mary, his 
mother, and falling down they adored him ; and opening 
their treasures they offered to him gifts, gold, frankin- 
cense and myrrh. The gold appertained to a king, frank- 
incense is used in the sacrifices of God, and with myrrh 
are embalmed the bodies of the dead. Wherefore the 
wise men proclaim by the mystical presents the proper- 



brownson's quarterly review. 367 

ties of him whom they adore : by the gold, that he was 
king, by the frankincense, that he was God, and by the 
myrrh, that he was mortal man. However, there are 
some heretics who believe that he is God, but would not 
at all believe that he reigns everywhere : they offer him 
indeed the frankincense, but they would not offer also the 
gold. And heretics there are, that think he is a king, 
but deny that he is God : they offer him the gold, but 
offer not the frankincense. And some heretics there are, 
that confess that he is both God and King, but deny 
that he assumed mortal flesh : they offer him the gold and 
frankincense, but refuse him the myrrh of assumed mor- 
tality. 

*^But let us offer at the Nativity of our Lord, gold, 
to manifest our belief in his universal reign ; frankincense, 
to confess that he who appeared in time, had been God 
before all ages ; and let us offer the myrrh, to declare our 
belief that he, whom we believe to be impassible in his 
divinity, is mortal in our flesh.'' 

Joannes Pajpa XXII., A. D, 1216. Extravag. de Verho- 
rum Signif. Cap, 4.— ^'Whereas it has been several times 
questioned among scholastics, whether obstinately to af- 
firm that our Redeemer and Lord, Jesus Christ, and his 
apostles, had neither in particular, nor in common, any 
things, is to be considered, whilst contrary opinions are 
held upon the question, as heretical. 

" We, willing to put an end to this dispute, do, with 
the advice of our brethren, declare, in this perpetual de- 
cree, that an obstinate assertion of this nature, as it evi- 
dently contradicts the Scriptures, saying in many places 
that they possessed some things, and openly insinuates 
that the very Scriptures, whereby the articles of the 
orthodox faith are certainly proved, contain in the premi- 
ses the leaven of a lie, and therefore renders the Catholic 



368 TEN HERESIES OF 

religion, by totally shaking its foundation, doubtful and 
uncertain, must be deemed erroneous and heretical. 

*' Besides, to assert obstinately hereafter that our said 
Redeemer and his Apostles had no right of using the 
things which the Scriptures say they possessed; no right 
of selling or bestowing them, or of acquiring thereby 
other things, which however they had done thereby, as the 
Scriptures testify, or expressly suppose that they might 
have done so, whereas such an assertion openly implies 
that the use of such things and management in the man- 
ner above mentioned, is not just, which is manifest blas- 
phemy, to think of the usage, transactions, or doings of 
our Redeemer, Son of God, contrary to the holy Scrip- 
tures, and injurious to the Catholic doctrine, that asser- 
tion, when obstinate, we do with the advice of our breth- 
ren, declare must be henceforward justly deemed errone- 
ous and heretical. Dated at Avignon, 2 Idus Nov., the ^th 
year of our PontificateP 

Con. Tridentinumy A, D. 1541, Sess. v.. Can. 21. — If any 
man say that Christ Jesus had been given to men by G-od 
as a redeemer in whom they would confide, not also as 
a legislator whom they should obey, let him be anathema. 

Catechisvius Con. Trid. A. D. 1563. De Symbolo^ Art. 
2. In Dominum nostrum. — " Christ, not only as God, but 
as man and a partaker of our nature, we also acknowledge 
to be a king : of him the angel testifies, Luke, i. 33 : He 
shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his king- 
dom there shall be no end. Although descended from the 
most illustrious race of kings, he obtained not this king- 
dom by hereditary or human right, but he was king be- 
cause God bestowed on him, as man, whatever of power, 
of greatness, and of dignity, human nature is adequate to 
receive. To him, therefore, he delivered the government 
of the whole world, and to his sovereignty, which has al- 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 369 

ready commenced, all things shall be made fully and en- 
tirely subject on the day of judgment." 

Dominum nostrum. — '^ Of our Saviour many things are 
recorded in Scripture, some of which clearly apply to him 
as God, and some as man ; because from the different 
natures he received the different properties which belong 
to each. Hence, we say, with truth, that Christ is Al- 
mighty, Eternal, Infinite ; these attributes he has from 
his divine nature ; again, we say of him, that he suffered, 
died, and rose again, which manifestly are properties com- 
patible only with his human nature. 

** Besides these, there are some others common to both 
natures ; as when, in this article of the Creed, we say : 
Our Lordj a name strictly applicable to both. As he is 
eternal as well as the Father, so is he Lord of all things 
equally with the Father ; and as he and the Father are 
not, the one, one God, and the other, another God, but the 
one and the same God, so likewise he and the Father are 
not, the one, one Lord, and the other, another Lord. As 
man, he is also for many reasons appropriately called our 
Lord ; and first, because he is our Redeemer who delivered 
us from sin. This is the doctrine of St. Paul, Phil ii.: 
he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to 
the death of the cross, for which cause God hath exalted 
him, and hath given him a name that is above all names, 
that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those 
that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and 
that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus 
Christ is in the glory of God the Father. And of himself 
he saith, Matt, xxviii., after his resurrection : All power 
is given to me in heaven and on earth. He is also called 
Lord^ because in one person both natures, the divine and 
human, are united ; and even if he had not died for us, he 
had deserved, by this admirable union, to be constituted 
common Lord of all created things, particularly of the 



370 TEN HERESIES OF 

faithful, who in all the fervor of their soul obey and serve 
him. 

" De Oratione Dominica — Adveniat regnum tuum. Al- 
though, even in his life, the pious and the holy are, in a 
special manner, under the kingly power of God, yet our 
Lord himself informed Pilate, John, xviii. 36, that his king- 
dom was not of this world; that is to say, had not its origin 
from this world, which had been created and is doomed 
to perish. For in the manner which we have mentioned 
do emperors, kings, republics, governors, and all others, 
at the call or election of the people, rule our cities and 
provinces, or those who by violence or usurpation have 
gained the supreme power. Kot so Christ our Lord, 
who, as the Prophet declares, Ps. ii. 6, is appointed king 
by God." 

As my proofs end here, let us recapitulate them. We 
have seen it declared in holy Writ, that all power in hea- 
ven and on earth is given by God to Christ Jesus ; that 
all things were made by him, and without him nothing 
was made ; that he came into his own, although his own 
people received him not ; that in him dwelleth the fullness 
of the divinity ; that he is the head of all principality and 
power; that he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. 
Is it not then conclusive, that Christ Jesus is omnipotent 
God, Lord and Proprietor of all things, visible and invis- 
ible, temporal and spiritual ? 

We have seen it defined in the Athanasian Creed, 
which was composed against the Arians in 340, and 
which is adopted and constant^ used by the Catholic 
Church from that year to this, that the Son is Almighty 
God, and Lord of all things, as the Father is ; that his 
Lordship is an attribute of both natures — of the divinity 
and humanity. 

We have seen it proved by St. Vincent of Lirens, that 



BROWNSON^S QUARTERLY REVIEW. 371 

the properties of God are particularly and generally as- 
cribed to man, and the properties of the flesh are in the 
same manner attributed to God. Therefore, omnipotence 
and dominion over all things appertain to both natures in 
Christ. 

We have seen it settled by Pope Leo, that the proper- 
ties of the divine and human natures are united in the 
one person of Christ; that in the integral and perfect 
nature of a true man, was the true God born, entire in 
his own, and perfect in our properties. Consequently, as 
omnipotence and lordship over all things, visible and in- 
visible, are attributes of the Godhead, you must also be- 
lieve and confess that they are properties of his manhood, 
unless you divide Christ ; but every spirit that dissolveth 
Jesus, is not of God, but of Antichrist. 1 John, iv. 3. 

We have seen it declared by Pope Gregory the Great, 
that none could with more justice rule over mankind, 
than Christ Jesus could over the people whom he created ; 
and that we must offer, at the nativity of our Lord, gold, 
frankincense, and myrrh : gold, to signify his universal 
reign ; frankincense, to confess his Godhead ; and myrrh, 
to denote that he who is impassible in his divinity, is 
mortal in our flesh. 

We have also seen it defined by the Pope, John, xxii. 
that if any man obstinately assert that our Redeemer 
and his Apostles had no right to use, sell, or bestow the 
things which, according to the Scriptures, they possessed, 
he will incur the guilt of heresy and blasphemy. 

The holy Council of Trent defines that Christ Jesus is 
given to men both as a Redeemer and a Legislator. Who 
can say that he did not legislate on worldly affairs and 
property, as well as on faith or spiritual matters ? Will 
he say, as the horrid Jews said, Luke, xix. 14 : We will 
not have this man to reign over us ? 



372 TEN HERESIES OF 

Thz Council of Trent Catechism^ which was issued by the 
authority of the holy Council of Trent; revised approbated, 
and edited, as the true exposition of the Catholic faith and 
doctrine, by the Supreme Pontiff, translated into all lan- 
guages, and adopted in every Church of Christendom, de- 
fines that Christ, not alone as God, but also as man, is 
king, and that of his kingdom there shall be no end. Can 
it be asserted that the absolute dominion of the eternal 
and omnipotent God over all things, visible and invisible, 
temporal and spiritual, is lost or forfeited the moment he 
became man ? 

The same Catechism, moreover, defines that God con- 
ferred upon Christ Jesus all power, greatness, and dig- 
nity, which human nature is adequate to receive. Whilst 
the lovers of mammon deem themselves capable of own- 
ing, and using, and bestowing money matters, will they 
deny the same power and right to God made man ? If 
they do so, they are not Christians, but Arian and Uni- 
tarian heretics. 

Further ; the same Catechism defines, that as the Sa- 
viour is both God and man, some properties, such as Al-^ 
mighty, Eternal, Infinite, apply to him as God ; and others, 
such as suffering, rising from the dead, and ascending into 
heaven, belong to him as man ; whilst other properties 
are common to both natures — to his Godhead and man- 
hood, such as Lordship. As the Father and Son are co- 
eternal, so the Son is Lord of all things as well as the 
Father ; that Christ Jesus is called Lord for several rea- 
sons ; first, because he redeemed us ; second, because all 
power in heaven and on earth is given to him by the Fa- 
ther ; that although descended from the most illustrious 
race of kings, he derived not his kingdom from this world, 
from the call or election of men, but he was appointed 
king by God, and that of his kingdom there shall be no end. 

However, from a false interpretation of the text in 



brownson's quarterly review. 313 

John xviii. 36, My kingdom is not of this worlds the uu- 
believers assert that as the kingdom of Christ, the Omni- 
potent God, is not of this world, he has left the whole 
management of worldly affairs to the people. But the 
unbelievers neglect to say by what rule or law the people 
are to transact their worldly affairs, or whether they are 
to be guided by no law, or principle. Shall the knaves and 
sharpers have liberty to cheat and circumvent the igno- 
rant simpletons, the strong and the mighty have lisence 
to grind and devour the weak ones, as the lion and the 
whale eats up the small fry ? If things come to this pass, 
society is but an assemblage of brute beasts, a community 
of barbarous heathens, collected together, not by brotherly 
love, but by the instincts of self-interest. That the un- 
believers take the sacred text in the wrong sense is made 
manifest by a little reflection. 

Joannes xviii. 36. — Regnum meum non est de hoc 
mundo : si ex hoc mundo esset regnum meum ministri 
mei utique decertarent ut non traderer Judasis ; nunc 
autem regnum meum non est hinc. 

My kingdom is not of this world ; for if my kingdom 
were from this world, my servants would certainly strive 
that I would not be delivered to the Jews ; but now my 
kingdom is not from hence. 

Remark how the verse contains three propositions : 
the second and third elucidate the first — My kingdom is 
not of this world — de hoc mmido ; If my kingdom were 
from this world — ^x hoc mundo : But now my kingdom is 
not from hence — non est hinc. Observe also the three par- 
ticles, de^ eXy and hinc. De has a double meaning : it de- 
notes now an action in a place, and then a motion from a 
place ; ex invariably signifies a motion from a place ; and 
so does hinc. With these impressions fixed in your mind 
come to review the whole verse. If it contained but the 

n 



374 TEN HERESIES OF 

first sentence — My king'dom is not of this world, it would 
signify, either, My kingdom is not over this world, or not 
from this world ; and may, therefore, be construed for or 
against the Christian religion. It was, without a doubt, 
to shield the holy gospel from the impious interpretation 
of the ignorant and unstable readers, that the Holy Ghost 
had added the last two sentences to the verse, namely : 
If my king'dom were from this world, and, But now my 
kingdom is not from hence. Either or both of these pro- 
positions evidently show the true import of the text, show 
that the lordship of Christ Jesus over all things, spiritual 
and temporal, visible and invisible, is not derived from 
this world, from the choice or election of men, but from 
his own Godhead. All power is given to me in heaven 
and on earth. Of his kingdom there shall be no end. 
That this is the orthodox interpretation of the verse is 
manifest from the very face of it, and from the concurrent 
testimonies hitherto seen, as from the holy Father now to 
be quoted. 

B. Augustin. Trad. cxv. in Evang. Joann. M. 18. — 
** What means his kingdom, but the believers in him, to 
whom he said, John, xvii. 16: You are not of the world ^ as 
I am not of the world. Although he willed that they be in 
the world, for which reason he saith of them to the Father, 
John, xvii. 15: I jpray not that thou shouldst take them out of 
this worlds hut that thou shouldst keej) them from sin. Hence 
he saith not : My kingdom is not in this world, but not 
from this world. And when he proved this, saying, If 
my kingdom were from this world, my servants would 
certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews, 
he said not, but now my kingdom is not here, but from 
hence. For here is his kingdom to the end of the world, 
containing the tares and the wheat until the harvest. 
The harvest is the end of the world, when the reapers, 



brownson's quarterly review. . 375 

that is, the angels, will come and collect out of his king- 
dom all the scandals ; which certainly could not be if his 
kingdom be not here : but it is not from hence, because 
they are but pilgrims in this world. To his kingdom, he 
undoubtedly saith, John, xv. 19 : You are not of this world j 
but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, when they 
were not of his kingdom, they were of the world and be- 
longed to the prince of the world. Of the world, there- 
fore, is whatever part of mankind was certainly created 
by the true God, but was propagated from the vitiated 
and condemned stock of Adam. But whatever part is 
thence regenerated in Christ, it is already a kingdom not 
of this world. 

Indeed, Brownson is the most deadly foe our Church 
has to encounter ; the Protestants, who openly separate, 
are without, and make no impression on our people; they 
are abhorred and shunned; nothing that they say against 
the Catholic truth is regarded by us. But Brownson, 
being within the bosom of the Church, under the Catholic 
garb and name, spreads out all the old and exploded 
heresies and atheism ; and nobody takes notice of him. 
Whereas his infernal errors and heresies are circulated 
in his Review throughout the length and breadth of the 
United States, and liable to be swallowed as gospel truth 
by unsuspecting posterity every person who sets any 
value on the salvation of his children and grandchildren, 
and wishes they would live and die within the bosom of 
the Church of Christ, should remove Brownson's produc- 
tions out of their way, and consign them all, without ex- 
ception, to the flames. 



THE END. 



I isr ID E x: 



PAGE. 

Apostolical Canons, Opponents of, .... 202 

Apostolical Canons, Abettors of, . . . . . 205 

Apostolical Constitutions followed . by the Ancient Fathers and 

Councils, ........ 215 

Bishop Hopkins' Fourteen Vagaries, . . . .110 

Bishop Hopkins Admits the Presbyterianism of the Episcopal 

Church, ........ 123 

Bishop Hopkins' Project of a Religious Union, . . . 126 

Bishop Hopkins Misrepresents St. Irenseus. . . . 137 

Bishop Hopkins Slanders tlie Catholic Church, . . . 134 

Bishop Hopkins' Erroneous Idea of the Catholic Church, . 151 

Bishop Hopkins' False Rule for Expounding the Scriptures, . 152 

Brownson's Ten Heresies, ...... 268 

Brownson's Fourth Heresy, ..... 287 

Brownson's Fifth Heresy, ...... 292 

Brownson's Sixth Heresy, ...... 294 

Brownson Seventh Heresy, ..... 300 

Brownson is a Deist, ...... 355 

Brownson's Eight Heresy, ...... 341 

Brownson's Ninth Heresy, ..... 347 

Brownson's Horrible Travesty of the Deity, . . . 277 

Brownson's Tenth Heresy, ..... 361 

Canon Law consists of Six Collections, . • . . . 191 

Canon Law Confirmed by the Popes, .... 192 

Commandments bear upon Spiritual and Temporal Matters, . 243 
Church, Catholic, Unity of, . . . . .9 

Church, Catholic, Received the Gospel from Tradition and the 

Scriptures, . . . . . . .138 

Church of Rome hath the Supremacy, .... 140 

Church Empowered to adjust Temporal and Spiritual Matters, . 235 

Catholic Principles, ...... 255 

Church and State is a Heretical Phantom, . . . 231 



3t8 



INDEX. 



Church, of England is Founded upon Sacrilege and Perjury, 

Church, American, is the Offspring of the English Protestant 
Church, ....... 

Church, American, hath no Head, 

Church, American, hath altered the Book of Common Prayer, 

Christ Jesus truly assumed Flesh and Blood of the Blessed Vir- 
gin Mary, ....... 

Christ Jesus is the Lord and Owner of all things, 

Christianity Introduced in England, 

Cranmer's Character, 

Calvinist Minister's Absurdities, 

Calvinistic Minister's Elasticity, . 

Divinity of Christ Demonstrated, . 

Elizabeth mounts the Throne, 

Elizabeth Renews the English Schism, 

Elizabeth's Last Days, 

England First Converted to Christianity, 

Edward VI. mounts the Throne, . 

Edward VI. Abolishes the Mass, and Substitutes the Book of 

Common Prayer, 
Edward VI.'s Death, 

Henry VIII. made the English Schism, 

Henry VIII. made himself Head of the Church in England, 

Henry VIII. Plundered the Minor Monasteries, 

Henry VIII. Plundered the Monasteries in General, 

Henry VIII. Would-Be-Defender of the Catholic Faith, 

Henry VIII. 's Death, .... 

Henry VIII.'s Character, drawn by Cobbett, 

Heresy, Definition of, 

Heretical Man, 

Ignorance, Invincible, 

Infallibility of the Pope, 

Innovator I.'s First Heresy, 

Innovator I.'s Second Heresy, 

Innovator II. 's Heresies, . 

Innovator II. hath no rule to discern Truth from Falsehood, 

Innovator III.'s Four Heresies, .... 



PAGE. 

65 

98 

102 

98 

306 
362 
358 
56 
249 
262 

282 

52 

53 
61 
16 
39 

39 
45 

20 
27 
31 
34 
35 
37 
37 
12 
13 

182 
172 
156 
163 
177 
181 
191 



St. Justin, M. P., Apology for the Christians, 



349 



INDEX 



319 



Mary Rescinds the English Schism, 
Mary's Character, . 

Oath of Coronation is Perjury, 

Oath of Abjuration is Perjury, 

Oath Prescribed for the Dissenters is Perjury, . 

Oath of Allegiance framed for the Catholics is Perjury, 

Perjury, Definition of, . . . 

Protestancy in America, .... 
Protestant Prelates, Origin of, in America, 
Protestant Rites and Worship are Barren and Fruitless 
Protestant Principles reduced to Practice 
Protestancy in America, a Costly Aflfair, 

Restitution and Compensation Necessary, 

Schism, Definition of. 

Schism in England, . 

Sectarian Mutability in the United States, 



PAGE. 

47 
50 

72 
75 

81 

84 

67 

93 

95 

265 

256 

252 

260 

11 

20 
104 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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